A Guide to Writing PJO Fanfiction
by FreyjasThirteenth
Summary: /under revamp
1. Introduction

**A Prologue in Third Person**

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The person writing this thing says hi.

So, we have here another Guide to writing Fanfiction. What makes this any different from the other Guides to Writing fanfic that's floating around this place?

She'll get back to you on that one.

This thing (which is not a fic, technically) is a Guide to Writing Fanfiction. Actually, it's considerably less than that. It's the insane ramblings of a girl who is suffering from writer's block (kind of) and needs to let out steam somehow. Said girl is no expert writer, but she does have literal years of experience haunting fandoms, especially this one.

So she will cover OCs, plots, story formats, shipping-

Oh god. The shipping. And it's _consequences. _If there's one thing that can get her off her lazy ass and type out her opinions, it's the shipping. And the _consequences._

But there are other things she has to cover before she can get to her baby, characterization. There are procedures. Things should appear one after another is a sequential manner. She should learn to not to get herself distracted like this.

And now she will steer her self into these troubled waters…

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**Disclimer: **All opinions listed in here pertain to the person writing to this thing. By no means are they Universal. But, like she said before, experience and yadda yadda and just try listening for a while, _please?_ :-/


	2. Glossary

**1. An introduction to general terms and phenomenae associated with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fandom**

ie; The Beginner's Glossary

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When stepping into a fandom, you often encounter strange terms. What is this OOC thing everyone is talking about? What do they mean by 'your OC'? How on earth do canons come into the picture? And what on earth is this Sue thing that's got everyone so angry?

See below.

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**AR** **[Alternate Reality]**: Universe obtained by changing any event in the books. The Whatifs belong to this category. What if Thalia had never joined the hunt? What if Nico had died instead of Bianca? Stuff like that.

_Note: Often, the line between AU and AR can be blurry. For simplicity's sake, people tend to use AU for both of these._

******AU [Alternate Universe]: **Usually obtained by changing the premises of the series. All-human High School fics are an example.

**Canon: **The Word of God. Which is to say, facts and events which actually happen in the books. Or has been confirmed by RR himself.

**CC [Constructive Criticism]: **Critique given to the story, often politely.

**Criticism: **Critique given to story, often bluntly. These are the people who don't have the time to sugar-coat things for you, but who aren't exactly interested in insulting you either. Sections of the population often classify people who do this as Flamers, but this is what they are going to be for the purpose of this Guide.

**Fanart: **Like fanfiction, except with images. These can be quite disturbing too.

**Fandom:** In general, the people who have read the book and liked them. In some cases, this can lead to them hanging out in fanfiction sites.

**Fanfiction: **There are a lot of loose ends and unfilled crevices in the PJO series. What was Thalia's life with her mother like? How did Sally meet Poseidon? What happens after they finally defeat the Big Bad? Are there any instances where Nico sees ghosts in normal life? Stuff like that.

Fanfiction is the devout fan's answer to such things, which is all well and good and very enjoyable. _But_ sometimes, things go… overboard. *cue dramatic music*

Since fan is short for fanatic, this should not be surprising.

**Fangirl: **Derogatory term used to indicate/address a person who uses one or more of the following: Chatspeak, excessive punctuation, bad grammar and other things in a similar vein. Things of the sort tend to annoy people who write, because it's mostly disregarding the sanctity of the language.

Fangirl is not gender-specefic. In other words, being a guy does not stop you from being one. Think of it as female chauvinism, since the majority of FF writers are females and everything.

**Fanon: **Things which deviate from/are not actually stated in the books or by the author. Fanon is a very relative term; individual, fractions and shippers all have their personal head fanon. An example would be Thalia/Luke, which is fanon for many people. Or Thalia/Nico, which is fanon for other people. Or Bitch!Rachel, which is also fanon for many people.

Nope, that last one is not canon. I'm sure that comes as a shock.

**Femmeslash: **Homosexual pairing featuring two females. Fancy Japanese term for this is **yuri.**

_Note: Femmeslash is often abandoned in favor of slash. It's simpler._

_Note2: The terms, I mean._

**Flame: **Insulting review. Definitions of 'Flame' and Flamer vary, but for the purpose of this Guide, it's what you call the reviews which offer a personal insult to you. And by personal insult, I don't mean "This is OOC." or "Please improve your spelling." It's the ones which go "Your story's a piece of crap!" with no actual reasons given, or the ones that go insult the ficcer personally.

**IC [In Character]**: The characters act like they usually do in canon. Percy snarking? Annabeth bossing people around? IC.

**Marty Stu/Gary Stu: **The male version of a Mary Sue. Or you could just use Sue for everything.

**Mary Sue:** Ah, the infamous Sue. Many define her as the perfect character, who is the epitome of the writer's fangirl fantasies. That's one way of looking at it; definitions of Mary-Sue vary vastly from individual to individual. But let's just say that most characters other people tend to hate, even though you're creating them specifically to be lovable, fall into this category. That's not all, of course, but it will do for a start.

**OC [Original Character]: **Not to be confused with OOC. An original character is somebody who is not in the books, but who appears in your fanfic.

_Note_: It's been brought to my attention that OC can very well stand for Other Character. I did not know this, but I see nothing wrong with the interpretation. It's still used almost exclusively to refer to the same thing.

**OOC [Out of Character]:** In my opinion, the bane of any fandom. Rachel plotting to take over Percy? Annabeth crying when confronted by mortal bullies? Thalia quitting the hunt at the first opportunity to shack up with some guy, random or otherwise? Artemis having a child (generally)? OOC.

**Pairing: **A romantic couple a person can support. Does not always have to be a couple. Does not always have to make sense. However, pairing problems in the PJO fandom breed mostly from overuse of a key few pairs, not bizarreness.

Pairings are indicated by NameA/NameB, or are sometimes words smooshed together from the names of characters. Example; Percabeth, Thuke, Thalico, Rico/Raico, Tratie and so on and on and on and on and on.

**Shipping:** The term 'shipping', is nothing nautical. The origin of the term starts with the English word 'relationship'. Relationship was shortened to ship. And ship became a verb rather than a noun, serving to indicate the massive approval of the person in question with the pairing under discussion. The act is called 'shipping.'

Got that? It's Fangirls-sorry, _Fanpeople_ deciding that two people (or more people) are entirely, absolutely perfect for each other and hang any indication otherwise. But to be fair, we also get a lot of it in somewhat milder form.

**Slash: **Homosexual pairing featuring two males. Fancy Japanese term for this is **yaoi.**

******Stereotypes: **Cardboard-cutout character profiles. Distressed Damsel, Hot Dude, Romantic Lover and Jealous Bitch are examples of these. These are a few basic character types used in most works. But they are _basic._ Using them does not a character make. More on that later.

**Troll: **Term given to a Flamer or Ficcer who acts excessively juvenile precisely in order to draw attention to him/her self. This is generally frowned upon an considered an absolute nuisance.

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The list given here is by no means complete, but it's one of those things you tend to remember as you go on. Questions? Clarifications? Review or PM.


	3. Presentation

_**Part 2**_

_**What you should know before you start writing a fic**_

ie; Presentation_**  
**_

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**Megamind**: Oh, you're a villain alright. Just not a _super_ one.

** Titan**: Oh yeah? What's the difference?

**Megamind**: _PRESENTATION!_

- Excerpt from the movie _Megamind_

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I swear I love that little big-headed blue-skinned little-

*coughs*

Anyway, that quote is there mostly because I've always wanted to put quotes in front of chapters. But it's still up there for a reason.

Let's say you want to start a story. You have everything planned out; or you have at least a vague idea of what is going to happen. You know who your characters are. You know how they react to situations. You have a villan, a hero and a romantic subplot. You have comic relief, action scenes and angsty scenes. Overall, your story seems just ready to come into being.

Right? Right.

But everything up there is going to matter very little without proper presentation skills.

I use the word Presentation here to cover the general impression a potential reader has of a fic, _before _she/he starts to read it. Yes, it exists. And yes, it matters.

When someone glances at the story, things jump out to that person, often wearing giant neon signs. They can notice lack of capitalization and isolated 'i' s. They can notice a distinct lack of vowels in groups of words. They can notice a lack of commas or quotation marks. The overuse of exclamation marks is _very_ hard to miss. Lack of clear demarcation between sections of a fic and the writer's notes leads to huh-moments. Run on sentences which go on forever can cause a headache, as can massively long paragraphs. One-sentence paragraphs can be irritating.

Reactions vary from individual to individual, of course. But there are a few things the majority of the thinking population tends to insist on...


	4. Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation

_**2.1 Back to the Basics: Cornerstones of the English Language  
**_

ie; Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation_**  
**_

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**2.1.1 Grammar**

The basic rules of using the English language. Not knowing them is… bad, to put it mildly. But the good news is; if you speak English, your basic grasp on grammar is more or less assured. It's next to impossible to not know something about grammar under those circumstances.

Now, nobody expects a fanfiction writer to be a grammar expert, but they must have the basic skills to converse to the reader. Converse _properly, _not converse inexpertly. Going through fics and trying to decipher what on earth that thing on the screen is? _Not_ a fun way to spend your time.

Plus, if you are going to use English for any extended period of time in whatever way; this is obviously required. Come on, admit it.

Grammar is what you start with, and you must have a moderately thorough grasp of it before you start writing. If not, disaster strikes and people all over the world beg to have their eyes washed out. Which is just sad, I tell you. Imagine all the watery noses that will result in.

**2.1.2 Spelling**

Close, close companion to grammar. Most people tend to club the two together.

Spelling _matters._ It has massive psychological effect. Any person with average respect for language will automatically sneer at someone who cannot spell, and for good reasons. If you are coming in here and attempting to write a coherent sequence of events containing characters, themes and plots; you are expected to know how to spell. The reason for this is similar to the reason for anyone learning the word 'cat' before they learn the word 'sesquipedalian.'

Just like grammar, it's basic. Just like grammar, it can't be avoided. But unlike grammar, we have help with this.

For those of us who cannot for the life of them remember if it was I before or after E except after C. For those of us who don't know how many m's are in tomorrow and how many n's are there in banana. For those of us who at completely inappropriate moments have doubts regarding the correct spelling of 'loud'; Spellcheck is our knight in shining armor, and we have no reason to hesitate over screaming for help. So go on and do your distressed damsel (or dude) imitation and sit back and relax as squiggly lines appear all over your document. With suggestions!

However, there are some things your knight can't help you with. Spellcheck is quite simple in the head, really; and sometimes the suggestions you get look right, but are very, very wrong. Coarse can be confused with course, for example. Prophecy and prophesy are two different words and have different meanings. And in this case, you're on your own.

**2.1.3 Punctuation **

The third part of the holy trinity of writing basics is Punctuation. And as it is basic, everyone is again expected to know it, which makes explaining the application of punctuation to fics really, really awkward. But there are people here who seem to have no idea about how to use the things, so here comes another inexpert explanation (more of an introduction, really) on a few of the more common abuses;

**The Comma.** Often, it can be quite hard to determine where exactly to put them. A simple, if somewhat unscientific way of determining where a comma goes is to read what you have written out loud. Everytime you give a slight _pause, _a comma can be used. Everytime you _stop_ the narrative for about half a second, you use the period/fullstop.

**The Exclamation Mark.** Extremely useful, this one. Especially in writing stories. It's one punctuation mark tailored for expression. A single exclamation mark can convey everything from anger to fear to hysteria to explosive laughter; probably more than you can do with an entire sentence explaining the same.

Multiple exclamation marks, on the other hand, merely serve to indicate the presence of a diseased mind. Stick to just one, and you'll go far.

**Quotation Marks**. These come in pairs, and serve to indicate dialogue. There's a massive set of rules involved in capitalization and usage of other punctuation marks when combined with quotation marks, which I will elaborate on if needed.

**The Ellipsis:** That's the term for those dots you put when you're milking the suspense (Eg: Annabeth stared at her ruined plans for the new Temple to Aphrodite and narrowed her eyes…) or doing any dozen other things. The ellipsis is as expressive as the exclamation mark, but subtler. The point to keep in mind when using it is that the dots come in threes. Not tens or twos. _Threes._

**Capitalization**: (This one's stuck here because it has nowhere else to go.)The English alphabet has two cases; upper and lower. Proper nouns and new sentences start with capital letters. In other words, Percy is Percy, not percy.

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**Disclaimer: **The person writing this Guide claims no real expertise with any of the above. However, she is moderately familiar with the same and this is an amateur guide so...

Also, ignore the x.y.z numerical notations. The person writing this thing can be slightly OCD when it comes to categorization.

Up next! _Presentation: Paragraphing and Formatting._


	5. Formatting Tips

_**2.2 Making Things Look Pretty**_

ie; Paragraphing and Text Formatting

_ie; The pointlessly subdivided second chapter of Presentation which sort of mutilates everything it harps on and on about _

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**2.2.1 Paragraphing**

Now, as such, there's no _rule_ to having paragraphs which go on forever and forever. But, especially considering the average age of the PJO fanfic readers found here, it helps to break down stuff into bite-sized chunks. You'll find that it's easier for people to get through paragraphs which don't take up about half the screenspace.

Approaching matters from the other side; one sentence is not a paragraph. It's a sentence. The occasional one-sentence paragraph can be very expressive, but for the most part it's a good idea to limit it's usage. And if you can't find out anything to _say _in a paragraph a few lines long, you probably aren't describing enough. But we'll deal with that in detail later. Or possibly not at all.

_Note: You can tell this guide is going to be thorough and organized already, right? 8)_

_I will now desperately try to ignore my tendency to lean towards one-sentence paragraphs when I write my stories. But you're not supposed to be following my example, oh dear god._

*coughs*

Anyway, it may not always be easy to know when to start a paragraph. Mostly, it's done to separate train of thought or pause at appropriate points between narratives. One point where you absolutely must start a new paragraph is when a new character starts speaking. Assigning one paragraph each to any character who speaks goes a long way towards minimizing confusion.

Let's take an example.

_Percy and Annabeth were strolling along the beach, hands intertwined. Suddenly a monster popped out of nowhere and charged at them. Annabeth gasped and gripped harder at Percy's hand, but he pulled away and said, "Run! I'll deal with it!" Annabeth stared at him in disbelief, "It could kill you!" Percy pulled riptide out of his pocket and ignored her, squaring his shoulders and facing the monster head on. _

The above is a stellar example of how _not_ to write PJO fanfiction in many, many ways. But let us focus on the issue at hand.

Now, that "It could kill you!" could have been said by either of them. This is a moderate example of the sort of mix-up not starting new dialogue on a new paragraph can result in. It's usually more possible to decipher who's saying what, but it's always clearer when you do this;

"_Which of the classical orders do you like better?"Annabeth asked, tapping a pen onto the tome she was reading._

_Percy, the other half of her romantic moonlight stroll across the beach, was seated right next to her and staring blankly into the water. He then transferred said blank stare to her. She sighed and resisted the urge to get her hands around his throat._

"_Gods, Percy. How many times do we have to go through this? Three classical orders, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Haven't I explained this to you already?"_

"_Uhm. I… think so?"_

"_I can't believe you! It's the most basic thing there __**is**__-"_

_And her tirade at her boyfriend for never listening to anything she told him was interrupted by the _thing_ with blue horns and matted fur which appeared in the distance and immediately charged at them. _

Now, separation into paragraphs was not really _required_ in that admittedly poor example. Because unlike the first sample, the characters of Percy and Annabeth have something more of an individual personality each. You can tell it's Annabeth from the way she's bossy and dominating. You can tell it's Percy from the way he's passive and a little spaced out. I am not saying that the two of them are always like this, but they are more likely to be like this than lovestruck, at least according to the series.

But anyway, putting starter dialogues of characters into individual paragraphs? Very important. Do not avoid.

**2.2.2 Visual Formatting**

Ah. Visual formatting.

I've been wanting to do this forever. By _Visual Formatting_, I mean the way you use the limited formatting tools has given you to present your story to the rest of the world.

**Bold,** _Italics_ and Underlined text options.

Now, most people know how and when to use these things, because it's more a tool for emphasis than anything else. The problem comes if you do an entire chapter in any of the above three formats; (with the possible exception of italics.) which can go a long way towards irritating anyone reading the fic. When writing, stick to standard, non-formatted text. Chunks of italics, however may be preferable to standard format if you're going to have a flashback in the middle of your story. It actually works better than a FLASHBACK/END FLASHBACK tag. The latter tends to disrupt the flow of a fic. Similarly, chunks of text in Bold is acceptable if you're using it to separate the Writer's Notes from the actual story.

Underlining, however, should be kept exclusively for headings and similar things. Of story or in story. Try to minimize it's usage except in small quantities.

**Centering Text**

The site lets you arrange your paragraphs in two alignments, left and centre. For stories, stick to LEFT ALIGNMENT. Trust me, it's much easier on the eyes to read long paragraphs with that than with centered alignment. Use centering for headings/notices etc.** Narratives of the story should be in normal alignment.**

Sometimes, the site screws up your formatting when you're trying to center things. It's a trial-error process and you'll get where you want eventually if you keep fiddling around with the align and save buttons.

**Page Breaks **

Typically, a story has several sections. Writer's Notes, Chapter Name (if you're putting it in the chapter), scenes from various perspectives, scenes which skip ahead in time by a few units and leave a blank between them; stuff like that.

Now, I've seen people use rows of asterixes, hyphens, dashes, letters and acronyms to split these sections from each other. There's a simpler way.

A page break is what that grey line between my heading and the Paragraphing entry is called. It's worked by that little grey line icon in the Document Manager toolbar. It's work of two seconds, and it serves to make stories look a lot more neater.

You will notice that I haven't used too many page breaks to format this chapter. This is because the last section is not big enough to have it's own page-break enclosure and all the other sections have to follow that last section for the sake of continuity.

Neurotic, I know.

**2.2.3 Miscellaneous**

(Where things don't fit in anywhere else go to.)

chtspk is 2 b avoided. Even in your notes. Use it whenever people in the story use it, but never otherwise. Nothing makes as bad an impression as chatspeak in a story. This also applies to WrITinG like this.

I mean, yeah. I harped on and on about paragraphing and formatting, but making errors in those areas is natural. You're not going to get hunted down and beheaded by a tribe of language-loving cannibals for forgetting a comma, or missing out a couple of letters in a word. For chrissakes, this is fanfiction, and we can understand the occasional mistake. The whole point of this thing is to minimize errors, not eliminate them.

But using chatspeak or variations thereof? Capital offense when writing something. To continue with the metaphor, the tribe of cannibals chasing you will be accompanied by airspace assistance. And possibly laser beams.

_Stick to standard text if you're writing a fic. I cannot stress that enough._

And with that, we will abruptly end this chapter._  
_

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Up next: 'Story' formats!


	6. Story Formats

**Part 3 **

**Story Formats **

_ie, an Introductory ramble about clichés_

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Let us now move on to the story. Which is to say, the plotting (or not, as the case may be) part of it.

*drum roll*

But before that, I'd like to express my opinion on clichés.

A cliché is, roughly put, what you'd call an idea or a concept which has already been used so many times that even looking at it gives you shudders. It's highly predictable. You've seen all variations before so nothing in there really interests you. Or, alternately, you love the idea so much that you wish people would stop with those weird pairings already and write more of this kind of fic.

I'm one of those people who firmly believe that a cliché is only a cliché if the writer (or ficcer) makes it so. Any story, no matter how bad the premises, can be made into this absolutely awe-inspiring OhMyGod thing, if the writer finds a way to pull it off. The last OMGSOAWESOME! fantasy series I read was actually conceived because someone dared the Author to take two ridiculously incongruous ideas and smoosh them together to make a readable story. The end product was something based off the lost Roman Legion and Pokemon; which featured wide disparity between the ruling classes and the common men, a dying royal line, a secret marriage, a slavery problem, ursupers to the throne, superpowerful magical familiars, a royal heir who grows up as a nobody… all things which have cliché scrawled on top of them in giant fluorescent multicoloured neon letters. And that was _before_ the alien bugs started invading the world.

And trust me. It was awesome, and that includes the alien bugs. Despite appearances to the contrary, I do not use that word lightly.

In fact, clichés often (but _rarely_ in fanfiction, please make a note) make the _best_ of stories, because a cliché becomes a cliché only if there's something in the human psyche which throws itself into embracing it. To quote, they are the 'hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.' They are, if not essential, then at least mindblowingly useful. You can do a _lot_ with a well-placed cliché.

On the other hand, it's really easy to hit yourself on the hand with a hammer. Just saying.

So yes; clichés by themselves are not going to be facing my wrath in this collection-of-chapters-trying-to-pass-off-as-a-guide, but I can't say the same for the ways in which they are employed. Actually, I kinda suspect that I started writing this thing (really, I can't call it a fic without giggling) just because I needed an excuse to vent about things. Mostly characterization, granted, but there's definitely a part of my brain (the one which cackles on a regular basis and enjoys poking virtual people with virtual objects with sharp edges) which is going to enjoy this.

Becasue some methods are getting to be just plain overdone.


	7. Truths and Dares

**_3.1 Story Types Specific to Fanfiction _**

_ie. plots which are hard to classify because they aren't exactly plots_

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Now the thing (or at least one of the things) with fanfiction is this; you don't have to stick to traditional storytelling. And over the years, the bunch of people writing all this stuff have come up with their own _types_ of story.

Look, I'm not entirely sure how to explain it, except by saying that one of it's those things you see which are common in the fandom, but which would rarely be considered a story anywhere else. A Truth or Dare fic may be a story, but first and foremost; it's going to be a T/D fic. It's like this whole different… _class_ of stories. And this is what I'll be attempting to cover in this section.

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**3.1.1 Truth Or Dare Fics**

Just out of curiosity, I ran a search for T/D fics on the PJO fandom. Then, because I figured I couldn't start talking about something without knowing what the heck it was about, I ran through them.

The first one made me blink, and question the meaning of life. Well. Of fanfiction, at any rate. The second made me beat my head against a wall. The third was actually better, except for the massive character mutilation that was running in circles all around the fic. Or maybe it was just a lesser, more bearable evil when compared to the first two. When you've just sat through two confessions of love (one concerning a hunter, no less) you start looking for anything which is not that. Even if it's exhibiting suicidal tendencies by prank-calling the gods.

Research has never been this horrifying, and that's including that time I ran a search on medieval methods of heinous torture.

It's just… picture this.

There is a Camp. It's not an ordinary Camp. There is fighting area with the sand still soaking up blood. The Camp borders a beach and a stretch of forested land with god alone knows what in it. There is a rock climbing wall… with lava running down it. There are archery targets. Javelin targets. Presumably, there are shotgun targets. Winged horses occupy their own set of stables, right next to their less privileged counterparts. There are probably greenhouses. Arts and Crafts centers. A music cabin where the Apollo campers refuse to let in anyone who cannot carry a tune. And heck; there are cabins, each tailored to fit the primary characteristics of the people they accommodate.

And yeah. These kids, who are unable to sit still for much longer than three seconds or so, who by their early teens have seen plenty of blood and guts and gore are going to sit around a table, giggling and playing Truth or Dare.

*cue headdesking*

I'm making a wild guess here and stating that _it does not happen that way, __**okay**__?_

Sure, make them play T/D. I can actually think of a few things which can be done with that (and no, it's not the confessions of undying love). But I have to tell you, you'll have to be one heck of a ficcer to pull it off. And most people who start off in the PJO fandom are, to be brutally honest, complete amateurs. A complete amateur and a Truth or Dare fic does not a good combination make.

But then again, most of the more experienced writers would balk at the idea of writing a T/D fic, except in parody. So maybe it's the other way round. And in the interest of not turning this Guide into a bitchfest, I'm stopping this tangent.

So, if you must write a T/D fic, here are a few things you ought to keep in mind.

First; nobody confesses their love for anybody else. This is _important. _Truth or Dare is not where lasting, healthy relationships are made. Also; people don't confess their love that easily. Especially not teenagers. And especially not teenage boys. Love is a powerful writing weapon, kids; just look at Severus Snape from _Harry Potter_. Don't abuse it by confusing it with teenage infatuation.

Second; Not everybody is in Camp all the time. The Hunters _rarely_ visit. Nico probably spends most of his time wandering around the globe- he's about the only person who can do that easily. Percy and Annabeth are summer campers, and prefer to spend the rest of their year away from there. Luke, Beckendorf and Silena are dead, and the powers that be probably aren't going to grant them a temporary reprieve so they can participate in the ultimate Truth or Dare challenge.

Logic and reason are your friends, not your foes. Negotiate with them. Don't throw them into your deepest dungeon and start howling LALALALALAAAAA in an effort to keep their voices away.

Third; the Greek Gods are… not nice people. Just pick up any random myth and realize how blatantly _**understated**_ that is. They are not the kind of people you prank call; unless you're looking for creative ways of committing suicide.

Fourth; the OOCness. Not every girl is shy and cute and just dying to admit she likes a guy. Not every guy is embarrassed but sincere and glad to have a reason to admit he likes the girl. They have individual personalities, people. Use them.

But seriously; try to avoid the things. TD fics are usually giant black holes for all sorts of good fic-writing elements like characterization, plot, logic and so on.

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Stay tuned for Karaoke, Lists and Songfics! Among other things.


	8. Karaokeing your Heart Out

_**Still 3.1 - Story Types Specific to Fanfiction **_

_(but with songs)_

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So. Songs.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to extol the virtues of music here. Good music makes statues weep, soothes the savage beast and brings people back to life. There's only one letter of difference between magic and music; et cetera, et cetera. We all know this.

This Guide appreciates music in all (or at least many) forms. But what I'm interested in right now are just the lyrics. Because when you're writing fanfiction, it's easier to bring in the lyrics. Or rather, it's the only element of music you can realistically hope to integrate into a fic. Because let's fact it; most people wouldn't glance twice at the youtube link you so painstakingly spaced out for their convenience.

The average reader is a lazy bum. Heartbreaking, but true. You only have to look at any hit/review ratio to be ascertained of the fact. Applaud if you have a number which is not a decimal lesser than one. You're one among a lucky, lucky few.

(And no, I'm not doing that oblique hinting thing. You have to trust me here.)

But anyway, back to lyrics.

Lyrics are used widely in songfics and karaoke fics, the two subtypes of fandom story classifications that I'm attempting to cover in this chapter… and the next. Bite-sized chunks and all that.

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**3.1.2. Karaoke Fics**

Let get this one over with, then.

Because in that Camp with the monsters in the woods and two near-fatal injuries per week (an assumed average), people standing around on a stage next to a karaoke machine, blushing and not making eye contact with the people they're singing about is just… _wrong_.

Or something Dionysus dreamed up in one of his wilder bacchanals. Take that as you will.

Unlike T/D fics, however, I think I've actually seen a story where someone made this karaoke thing (kinda) work. It involved Apollo, some sort of blackmail and people being snarky and reluctant about having to participate in something like karaoke at a Demigod life-or-death training Camp. Which _does_ make sense.

However, I cannot remember if any of the characters actually sand songs in that fic. Which could make it a parody, and that sort of negates the whole point of listing this under karoke fics.

Either way; most karaoke fics tend to be like most Truth or Dare fics. Just like Truth or Dare stories, Karaoke fics are things which make me, by their very existence, question the meaning of life and/or fanfiction. This is due to distressingly similar reasons; so much so that writing the tips for improvement started giving me déjà vus.

First. Confessions of love don't really happen by way of karaoke, at least not without considerable buildup. If you _must_ have someone sing their love for someone else, make sure it's at the end of an actual relationship story. That can be horribly cheesy, but it would make more sense than people suddenly bursting into songs about their affections.

This isn't High School Musical, people. I _might_ have liked that movie, but it the PJO characters don't work via song.

Second. Not everyone is in camp all the time. Refer the Truth or Dare chapter for further details, because readers aren't the only people who are lazy bums.

The third one is something new.

You might remember that scene in the Last Olympian, when Nico and Percy wanted to get into the Underworld. Both of them were pretty desperate; like life-or-death desperate over it. But not to the point that either of them even _considered_ attempting to sing. It was a No, and that was that.

The moral of this story: Percy and Nico would risk possible death rather than sing.

Now apply this to a karaoke scenario. At best, you get them to sing and the entire Camp immediately rises in protest and duct-tapes their mouths shut. And make them swear on the Styx never to sing again for good measure. At worst, they refuse to sing at all and spend their time glowering at the people who want them to sing.

It's quite possible I have the worst-best scenarios mixed up. But whatever, you get the point. _Not everybody is a good singer._ Some people are actually incapable of carrying a tune.

This is something I have learned from vast personal and very intimate experience. Ahem.

Fourth; song lyrics do not make a story. If you have to write a karaoke fic; please add in character interactions. I have literally seen stories which go like this;

_Percy took the mic. He sang,_

_(insert entire song here)_

_People clapped. Percy handed over the mic to Nico, who sang,_

_(insert more lyrics here)_

Note: If the lyrics take up more space than your actual story, you're doing something wrong. Copy-pasting lyrics is not writing. It's copy-pasting lyrics. Try to avoid this, even if you think the song is perfect for the character and speaks for itself. In which case, you're looking for a _fanmix_, not a fanfic.

Lyrics should be used to _accent_ your story, it should not be allowed to dominate it; but that really is something to be left for the next chapter.

* * *

Further Notes: For anyone who might be wondering about this, I did not forget the OOCness. I would have, but after some thought, I realized that it was a problem so rampant and widespread that it would seriously require it's own chapter to be addressed properly. _Chapters_, actually.

* * *

**Other Notes (which are not part of the Guide)**

**To ToReadandWrite: **Pregnant!Annabeth is on my list, yes. Sue!Thalia, however, managed to escape my notice. I would be greatful if you could tell me exactly what you mean by that. It sounds horribly like something I would hate to miss out on. D8 Also, the series in question is _Codex Alera_ by Jim Butcher, but it starts of really slow. You need to sit through the first book an a half. Or possibly just the first half of the first book, since we do have an epic battle in the second half.

And thank you. :)

**To Everybody**: As there's this giant possibility that I might miss out on something-

Okay. I'm _definitely_ going to overlook/forget things I would rather not overlook/forget. And this is where you come in, dear readers. Comment upon nything you fell needs to be commented upon. My gratitude will be yours. 8D

Up next; Songfics!


	9. Saying it with Songs

_**Still at 3.1 - Story Types Specific to Fanfiction **_

_(again with songs)_

* * *

I've been enjoying myself the last two chapters. You probably already knew this.

This chapter, however, might be just the slightest bit different. You might be surprised to hear this, but I actually classify the songfic under 'perfectly acceptable story format' instead of 'oh my god, what the hell were people thinking?'

I know. Shocking, isn't it?

Nevertheless, I can always find thing to gripe about...

* * *

**3.1.3. Songfics (Type 1)**

_(the ones with bits of lyrics between bits of fics and vice-versa)_

Consider; the word _songfic_. It is made of two parts; the _song_, and the _fic_. Possibly because of the way song comes first, people think that the defining part of this word is the _song_, and that the _fic_ comes next. But English being the kind of language it is, it doesn't really work that way.

_Fic_ here is the noun. _Song_ is merely the adjective used to add a little emphasis to the noun. The very etymology is tugging at your unconscious here- when writing a songfic, what you have to focus on is the fic, and not the bloody song. And seriously; that's pretty much ninety percent of what you need to be careful about.

The thing with fanfiction is this; you need to add something new into whatever you're writing. By this, I don't mean coming up with an 'ohmygod, this makes me squee!' plot, the likes of which has never been seen in the fandom before. I wouldn't advice against it, of course; but a necessity it ain't.

By something new; I mean _anything_. A scene. An observation. Something which hasn't been stated to the reader already via the books. For instance, everyone knows Thalia had a hard home life and was at least halfway in love with Luke before things went to hell. Having her sitting down somewhere narrating, "My life was hard. My Mom was a bitch. My best fried turned evil etc." does not tell people anything new. It's just information distilled from the books and regurgitated with _really_ similar words.

PJO Fanfiction is for frosting the cake Rick Riordan's made us. Add in anything. Filler scenes. Alternate interpretations, alternate pairings, scenarios, whatifs. The possibilities are endless. And also very often ignored.

With songfics, they're most often _outright_ thrown out of the window because hey; the song forms the backbone of the story. It's already _got_ something new, something which was not there in the books.

Which brings us back to the whole fic-noun, song-adjective thing.

Here's the shocking truth: most people don't give a rodent's backside about the song. To any reader, a songfic is still a fic; because they probably already know the song and reading through all those lyrics is a boring and pointless. So, they usually don't.

And here's the challenge. Make them.

In my opinion, an _effective_ songfic is one which uses the song to a degree that the reader reads the entirety of the lyrics posted, and reads it with _feeling_. Because those few lines you've posted not only connect to the story, but serve to accent and emphasize it. Without dominating it.

And to help navigate those tricky, tricky waters, I present the following guidelines;

**The first** thing you have to do to makes sure your reader reads your lyrics is something that is simple, effective and has repeatedly been honoured by the leaders of humanity.

Which is to say, you have to cheat.

Or, to be specific to the case, _cull_. Chop, slice, mince. Cut up your fish/vegetarian option. Discard all the parts you think are unappetizing. Keep just the prime meat/veggie option.

In any song you're using, not all of it is willing itself to be used. There are weird bits, corny bits, bits which don't make much sense and bits which are completely and totally not applicable to the story outline you have in your head.

Don't feel sorry for these rogue lyrics and try to fit them into your plans. Be an oppressive capitalist and show them who's boss. Sack 'em. Discriminate in particular against repeats of choruses and anything which goes na-na-na/la-la-la/ooh-ooh-ooh/insert-any-croon-I-might-have-missed-out-here. Retain the words who meekly obey your orders and indulge in an evil laugh (the Corrupt Corporate Executive version) for dramatic emphasis. Also, I hear it's therapeutic.

Your song will get a hell of a lot more attention as a stanza of italicized lyrics than as a page of them. Less lyrics mean more attention. It's all delightfully oxymoronic.

**Second,** the concept of your song must not dominate the concept of your fic.

The people who write songs write them with something in mind. Their song tells a story of it's own, and in many cases, people who're writing songfics adopt _that_ story as their own.

In other words, it doesn't matter if the canon character is nothing like the character in the song. If the song's about somebody wearing 'short skirts' and 'high heels', you can be pretty sure than a somewhat weird girl who prefers paint-stained jeans will suddenly morph into a Cheerleader avatar.

I'm telling you; this is not healthy. It paves the way to accepting character derailment as an unavoidable consequence of fanfic-writing. And that's just… no. If the song doesn't quite fit, the PJOverse isn't what should undergo massive transformation.

**Third,** don't rely on the song for your scenes.

Just like songs have a story, they also have a series of events with which to tell the story. And here again, the song dominates the fic and scenes in the fic look almost exactly like scenes in the song, except with changed names.

Needless to say; original this ain't. And it leads to amplification of that last point.

When writing a songfic, come up with your own scenes. Sure, use elements from the song lyrics, but don't copy them outright. For instance, if the song says something about that wedding dress looking like a large pastry, don't _ever_ follow it up with your female lead thinking the _exact same words_. Repeating the words the song-characters say is also a bad idea.

**Fourth,** remember the Golden Rule. _**Your fic should not take up less space than your song does.**_ In fact, it should take up a LOT more space than your song does. Remember that whole noun-adjective thing.

Because really. It's your fic and you shouldn't be allowing any song, however wonderful, to drag it away from the spotlight.

* * *

**Notes:**

**To Everyone who sent in Suggestions:** Sorry about the lack of individual replies, but I assure you I'm keeping track of them, and that they will eventually see the light of my laptop. Hopefully soon.

In the meantime, keep them coming, please.

******To You Know Who:** Anyone who reads the Dresden Files is someone I love to hear from. :) I fangirl over those books _so_ much... and it doesn't help that I haven't liked any other neo-urban fantasy I've tried to date. This obsession of mine is frighteningly singular. :-/


	10. Miscellaneous Stuff

_**The Final 3.1 - Story Types Specific to Fanfiction **_

_(Miscellaneous Head-bangers)_

* * *

******3.1.4. **Submit-Your-Own-Demigod Things

So, about a month ago or so, I went away for a few weeks. Real life invading my life and all that. And when I came back, the fandom had been overrun.

Again.

Here's the thing. If can't make your own characters, you have no business writing a story where OCs are the protagonists. Making a skeleton; that is, assigning her/him looks, godly parents and superweapons is the easiest part of creating any character. The hard part comes when you have to develop each of your characters with a personality and voice distinct from all of your _other_ characters.

And I have words for those of you who didn't know that was a _requirement_. They're not very nice words, so I'm keeping them to myself.

See, a character is more than a set of categorized appearances and abilities. Any character worth their salt is one who has been (excuse my Hallmark Moment) written with _feeling_. That rarely happens if you barely care about the character. Why should you? She/he is not yours.

Writing an OC story is risky in the first place. You're opening yourself up into a _minefield_ of potential disasters. Please don't make it worse by borrowing your elite troops from random people over the interwebs. Random people over the interwebs, as we all know, are somewhat less than trustworthy.

On a side note, "Nice, but gets angry if her friends are threatened," is not a personality trait. It's a heartfelt plea for some flamethrower action.

* * *

**3.1.5. Chatfics and Instant Messaging fics**

These can be done properly. They _can_ be. But most often, they're not.

This is largely due to the presence of chatspeak (refer _'Formatting Tips'_), massive mischaracterization (Refer _'Character Theory'_ when I finally get around to putting it up) and absolute illogicality.

References for that last bit may be found with reason and logic, assuming that they aren't shut away in your tower scratching lines into walls.

Chatfics fall squarely into the domain we call crackfics. Crackfics are so called because they give the impression that they were written when the writer was on crack, drunk or otherwise intoxicated. Insanity abounds in a crackfic, but that is no excuse for illogicality. Because insanity can be beautifully logical, and many, many of my favourite fics (on my main account, not this one) are crackfics.

But there's crack, and then there's _crack._ It varies from person to person, as with everything else. But if you're making Nico dance around singing Miley Cyrus songs, you can bet you've gone wrong somewhere. A drunk Chiron running around playing pranks counts too.

Crack is not for the rank amateur, because successful crack requires being familiar with the characters and their limits. Otherwise, it's just another hysteria-spawning disaster.

* * *

**3.1.6. List Fics**

Insert paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 from the previous section under here.

List fics are again things that should not be done by the n00bs, but which most often are. To make a list of "How to annoy someone" even remotely interesting, you need to be off the wall, unconventional, witty, an expert in characterization and a dozen other things that most people who start out are not.

Lists may seem like an easy way to start your fanficcing career, but do not be fooled. Like Chatfics and IM fics, thay can only be pulled off properly by someone who knows what they are doing. If you find yourself writing "Tease him", "Tell him he's ugly", "Tell him (insert beloved's name here) died", discard the document _at once, _and pick a theme that's easier to deal with.

_Note:_ As DaughterofHecate1234 pointed out, lists work particularly well when they're incorporated into a story. They can be marvellous narrative devices. Like Kioko's _Book of Facts_, which was incredibly eloquent for something that short.

But by themselves, they're pretty risky.

* * *

**Notes:** The revised section on PJO-Characters-Read books has been moved to the next chapter. Mostly because I am a sucker for reviews.


	11. Characters Reading the Books

**__****The Final 3.1 - Story Types Specific to Fanfiction **

_(for real this time)_

* * *

**3.1.7. PJO Characters Read the Books**

Right. Here's the revised opinion.

I will admit that the whole PJO-characters Read the Books was never one of my favourite story types, and I haven't really sat through the entirety of any of them. Even when I was reading through the better ones to get some inputs for writing this, I never really got past the first one or two chapters.

In other words, I am biased. I am wholly and throughly biased for no discernible reason. This isn't like the T/D fic-thing,which was just me being disillusioned. So you may want to take whatever I say with a grain of salt.

These fics are actually not that badly written in general. there are people who have added in well-characterized sarcasm, which is definitely a winning point. So yes, they can be done well too. Just like eveything else.

*cough* Anyway, from my limited (and trust me when I say _limited_) exposure to the things, here are a few points;

One. There is a suspension of disbelief thing happening here. People instantly accept and believe a bunch of random books which just dropped in from somewhere. Since I classify this under crackfic, I really shouldn't be whining about it making sense. But it would be nice if some disbelief, skepticism and other synonyms could be implemented.

Two. Not everyone is going to be gathered together without some reason. God-demigod combo reading sessions are particularly huh-worthy. Use that imagination, people. Find a way to bring them together. Honorary guard half-blood troops at the Winter Solstice, a sudden shortage of godly foods leading to an emergency meeting at Olympus, whatever.

Three. Randomness can be funny, but not if it happens all the time. Too much of it stinks of desperation. Avoid.

Four. Again, reading the books is not a platform for Percy and Annabeth to suddenly go into embarrassed declarations of 'I like you too.' I was happy to see that declarations of 'I love you' were rare in this case, though.

Five-

Well, okay. Five is not really a point, but I noticed that most people who write one of these things have pretty much the same dialogues going on. I think I saw three SoM fics (none of which I could really find much _fault_ with) which had a character asking Percy why his Mom would be happy about him making it to the last day of school, followed by someone explaining his educational track record.

It may just be an isolated incident, but I doubt it. After all, in the given scenario, there are only so many ways you can react to the books. This might make writing a halfway original CRB story hard. Fair warning.

* * *

**Notes:** We will be moving on to _Plotting: Incredibly Overused Ideas_, once we're done with our detour into Character Mutilation City. This is mostly because Character Mutilation plays a large part in why plotlines get screwed up, and I really should cover it before I go on to anything else.

Stay tuned. 8D


	12. Character Theory

**Part 4**

_**Character Theory**_

_(we venture into the widespread phenomenon of OOCness)_

* * *

Because I really, _really_ should have covered this earlier.

Apparently, you can't point out faults in _any _type of story without touching upon character mutilation. I didn't know that when I started. But halfway through the Story Formats section, I realized that if I'm going to be covering things like High School Aus and Pregnant!Annabeths, I really needed to provide some background ranting on character mutilation. "This is Annabeth acting OOC," is just not going to cut it anymore.

When you're writing fanfiction, what you're generally doing is kidnapping someone else's characters and dropping them into a situation of your own. I mean, sure; other people annex the situation and drop their own characters into canon territory, but for the most part, it's going to be the former.

I'm more a Type A kinda girl, because what _really_ attracts me into any series is (a) narrative capability of the author and (b) their skills at characterization. I go _gaga_ over well-written characters, irrespective of their age, sex, species or alignment. Charismatic seductresses, classic heros, badass damsels in distress, miserly superdragons, psychopathic ax-murderers, Action Girls, Non-action guys, Wolfmen warmasters, vampires who are complete slobs, neanderthal barbarian elf-cheftians, fashionista warrior-princes, Fallen heros, Machiavellian strategist clowns, No-nonsense governesses-

I'm getting carried away here. Let's just say that if they're _written_ well, I'll fall in love with them. Even if they're vampires, and I hate vampires as a matter of principle. And no, I'm not talking about _Twilight_ here._ Twilight_ pales in comparison to some of the other things floating around the YA genre these days.

Anyway;

And so, it should come as no surprise that even with the many, _many_ evils that plague the PJO fandom, character mutilation is the one thing that can piss me off like nothing else can. _Nothing_ else. I've sat through pages and pages of illogical romances, clichéd plotlines, bad spelling/grammar and Mary Sues at a strech, but I don't really start despairing till I stumble across someone slashing a canon character to bits.

Of course, when a ficcer goes over to the dark side, the first crime they commit is character mutilation. It is to fanfictioners what killing a random bystander is to any comic-book villan. This means that it's almost always found in conjunction with a bad story. Illogical romances, clichéd plotlines, bad spelling/grammar things and Mary-Sue stories are always accompanied by one (mostly more) of the canon characters acting in a way which is nothing like how they behave in the books.

This is probably the first thing you want to try and avoid when you write a story, not counting the whole grammar/spelling thing, which still has precedence. Mutilating a character to someone (thing) unrecognizable from the parent character and then _accepting it as an unavoidable part of writing fanfiction_ is the equivalent of Anakin Skywalker becoming apprenticed to Senator Palpatine. Or Luke joining forced with Kronos. Insert any other Face Heel Turn moment you can think of here.

Ie; you have turned evil and redeeming yourself is going to be a messy, messy affair.

/end drama.

But seriously. Character mutilation paves the way towards everything else. Once you accept it, you're crossing lines and destroying limits set by the canonverse. Which is why this is going to take a few chapters to cover.

* * *

**Note:** I've also heard this interesting… observation; "Nobody who's writing fanfiction can write the PJO characters in character. They're OOC by definition. Only Rick Riordan can do IC."

I applaud the person who came up with it, I really do. It's one of the most creative excuses I have ever seen.

And here's the counter-statement: Nobody, and I do mean _nobody, _is expecting you to writing like Rick Riordan. On the other hand, people do expect you to respect his work. If you completely alter his characters to fit general Archetypes, you're not writing his characters any longer. It's just a bunch of people who look like the canon characters and have the same name. But who are in no way identifiable with them.

You have now moved on from writing fanfiction to writing Original fiction. Congratulations.

IC does not mean 'writing like RR', it means sticking as much as you possibly can to his characters so that a reader would be able to identify them with the book characters. So yeah. Not an excuse.

**Note 2:** Alternate Realities sometimes deal with changing a character's backstory; and with that, their personality. This is an entirely different kind of fic and deserves a chapter (or so) of it's own. And yes, they can also be OOC or IC, but it's all very… *makes vague hand motions* different. And complicated and really not something I should go into in the intro chapter.

* * *

**A Note addressed to the Readers:**

Next up is Annabeth Chase and what you're supposed to do (or no do) with her. Again, I doubt I'll be able to remember all the different varieties of OOC!Annabeth, so inputs on the subject are welcomed.


	13. Archetypes, Stereotypes and Combinations

**Note:** It has been brought to my attention that I tend to use a lot of tvtropes terms.

You may have noticed that I tend to capitalize random words in the middle of a paragraph. Like whenever I talk about the Distressed Damsel, for instance. I do this deliberately, to indicate that I'm using a trope.

A trope, for those of you who don't know what it's about, is a writing device. And not one necessarily constrained to textual writing, either. A trope can just as easily be used in Live Action, animation, comics, music or any other form of communicative media. There is a site dedicated to cataloguing all (or at least a lot of) tropes, called tvtropes (dot) org. Anyone who finds this Guide interesting should probably head over there, because it's all about overanalyzing things. Just make sure you have nothing planned for the next couple of days. Or months.

For those of you who may get confused about my tropes usage, I'm sorry. :/ I tried writing without them, but got stuck. I'm going to continue using them, but I will stick as much as possible to the general, decipherable terms. If there are still moments of WTF, feel free to scream at/question me.

* * *

**4.1. Of Archetypes, Stereotypes and Combinations**

_ie. prolonging of the introduction takes place_

* * *

Annabeth's character analysis has been moved down a chapter, alas. This is partly because I wanted to go into archetypes (and stereotypes) and partly because classifying the sheer number of OOC Annabeths is a herculean task.

But I'm making progress, I swear.

So, about OOCness; it's mostly found in romance fics. Sure, the humor/angst sections have their share, but the Romance section really takes the cake here. Even in fics which are mainly other genres, OOCness happens mostly when one character is romantically attached to another. Put 'em next to each other and the Power of Love prompts a metamorphosis. The Action Girl turns into the Distressed Damsel. The Deadpan Snarker turns into The Romantic. The Artist turns into the Rich Bitch, and the Lost Soul turns into the Evil Overlord.

I think you can figure out who all I'm talking about here.

What's given below applies mostly to romances, but it treads over into general fic stuff at some points, but not all. A general fic offers even more archetypes, but not going into that here.

* * *

**About Archetypes and Stereotypes: **

Someone once defined an archetype as _"a kind of readiness to reproduce over and over again the same or similar mythical ideas" _in the collective consciousness of the people. And fanficton is most definitely a collective consciousness of the people.

An archetype is what you call the _essence_ of your character. Why, at their core, they do what they do. The basic Archetypes are not clichés, as such. Because they form only the framework for what your character should be. You still have to add in the details. An archetype is to a character what a foundation is to a building. You can't build without it, but you aren't going to get by on just it, either.

The eight female protagonist archetypes in skeletal form are** The Boss, The Seductress, The Spunky Kid, The Free Spirit**, **The Librarian**, **The Waif, The Crusader **and** The Nurturer**.

The eight male protagonist archetypes in a nutshell are **The Chief, The Bad Boy, The Best Friend, The Lost Soul, The Charmer, The Professor, The Swashbuckler **and** The Warrior.**

_Note: If you're interested in finding out more about these archetypes, try googling Tami Cowden. But here, we'll just stick with the names and whatever interpretation you get from them. _

Now, the reason I mentioned these archetypes (yes, I had one) is this; more often than not, a romance fic heroine/hero falls precisely into one of the classifications given. _Percisely._ Which is where we have a problem.

Because when the archetype is taken at face value without any additions or twists, you get what's called a stereotype. It's defined as _"__A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image."_Using a stereotype is not recommended.

For instance, commonly used Annabeth stereotypes are _The Spunky Kid_ (Loyal and trusting; the quintessential best friend) and _The Waif_ (Damsel in Distress who takes everything that's thrown at her in silence). Many people tend to forget that she generally exhibits characteristics of _The Boss_ (arrogant, domineering, efficient, take-charge).

But that's not all. She has hints of _The Librarian_ (Strategist), _The Nurturer_ (gets fiercely jealous of her friends) and yes; _The Spunky Kid. _Can't see _The Waif _anywhere though. Sorry about that, folks.

Similarly, Percy is usually depicted as _The Charmer _(chick magnet, flirty) even though he fits a lot better into _The Best Friend _(honest, loyal), _The Chief _(likes giving orders) and _The Warrior _(defender) categories.

When you write a character, be it a canon character or an OC, I'd advise you to step back and take a look at the stereotypes listed up there. See if your character falls into only one of the sections, and if they do, step back and reanalyze them. Then give them a little variety.

Because here's something; people are complex. And ideally, so are characters, because they are stand-ins for people when you're reading the book or comic or watching the movie or whatever. Don't abandon them to a cardboard-cutout personality. Combine their traits, and don't abandon some characteristics in favor of others.

This is only the first step, though. Having a character who fits into all eight archetypes is not going to ensure he/she is a good character. But it's a pretty straightforward defense against really clichéd character personalities.

_Note: The above stereotypes apply only to the hero/heroines. The villans have a sixteen of their own, which might come up in the OC section._

* * *

**Note:** Sorry for how long the Annabeth thing is taking. :/ RL can be a bit of a bitch sometimes.


	14. How To Write Annabeth Chase, Part 1

_**4.2.1. How to Write Annabeth Chase, Part 1**_

_ie. Part the First of a long, long thing_

* * *

Annabeth Chase.

And no, as far as we know, she has no middle name to speak of. Minerva, I admit, would be a pretty good choice for one. But Annabeth's name already pays homage to her mother's. If you notice, _Annabeth _is _Athena_ with a few extra letters added in.

But hey. If you're badly in need of a middle name, help yourselves to whatever comes into mind. I'd advice against it, but I wouldn't do it particularly vehemently. A previously unknown middle name is the _least_ of my concerns.

For your convenience, the different Type!Annabeths (because there are so many of them) found in the fandom have been categorized, each with their own commentary.

* * *

**4.2.1. 1. Type!Annabeths who should be dangled from a high window till they come to their senses**

Annabeth is quite possibly (almost certainly) the most mischaracterized person in this fandom. Something about the beautiful blonde princess curls and the pretty grey eyes makes people dress her in a flowing white dress, put her into a tall stone tower, and make her wait anxiously for her Percy Charming to come and save her from that nasty dragon. They forget the fact that she's more likely to tear up the bedsheets (and possibly the bottom half of her gown) to make a getaway rope, gather resources and come back to murder the dragon for wasting her time.

And the classic Damsel in Distress ploy isn't the only one that is overused. Badass!Annabeth isn't the only one who is underused. See below (and the next few chapters)…

* * *

**1.a. Submissive!Annabeth**

Submissive!Annabeth is what I decided to call that type of Annabeth who meekly accepts all orders and suggestions thrown at her. Especially when the order/suggestion comes from Percy. Or Luke, in some cases.

This, I have to tell you, is not a defining characteristic of anyone whose Fatal Flaw is _Pride._

Proud people don't take orders, they_ give_ them. Alternatively, they refuse to follow orders and go off on their own, but Annabeth falls smack into the heart of that first category. She's been giving people orders right from that time she was twelve in LT. She's in charge of a cabin despite the fact that there are people in there who are older than she is. I think it's safe to say she's _used_ to giving orders.

And people who are used to giving orders, I repeat, have a hard time taking them. Even if they come from the love of their life, their other half and the solace to their soul.

This does not mean that she never listens to Percy. She often doesn't, but she sometimes does. And in Luke's case, she may actually follow orders to an extent, because she's known Luke since she was a kid and that kind of impression stays with you. What I'm trying to say is this- just don't _overdo_ her taking orders. And make sure than when she does, she does it with at least a bit of reluctance. Preferably a lot of it.

* * *

**1.b. Boycrazy!Annabeth **

You're seeing this incarnation of Annabeth when every waking thought in her head has to do with Percy. Or, theoretically any other guy. But let's face it- it's always Percy. Every act of hers, and every thought she thinks.

Humor? "Oh my god, Seaweed Brain is so funny!" Angst? "Percy doesn't love me!" Friendship? "He's like my best friend and I don't know how I will live without him!" And Romance? I'm not even going to go there.

Please, do not _ever_ make this mistake. It's degrading to the characters and humanity in general. A daughter of Athena, whose motto is "Always, always have a plan," (it's there on the PJO website) would not spend her every waking moment thinking about a boy- and more importantly, thinking about how to _please_ him.

I mean, god. She has more pride than _that._

If you ask me, Annabeth's head would be a very, very confusing place to be. It would be the equivalent of the convoluted, complex labyrinth, not the equivalent of a princess-pink room with a Percy poster tacked on the wall. Just… no.

* * *

**1.c. DistressedDamsel!Annabeth**

This type!Annabeth is somewhat pathetic. She will routinely get herself into trouble (it's often a kidnapping) and then huddle into a corner and wait for someone (Percy) to come and rescue her from her torment.

To be honest, Annabeth doesn't have quite the amount of power the people she generally hang out with do. Thalia and Percy overpower her easily in terms of raw power, possibly even in terms of fighting skills. But guess what? That doesn't make her anything like a distressed damsel. Not even in comparison.

I think some people believe that this interpretation is justified, because Annabeth is the one demigod in the entire series who gets _kidnapped._ But there is a difference.

That Annabeth up there (or any DIstressedDamsel!Annabeth avatar ever) would probably just curl into a ball and cry her heart out till her rescue team comes and saves her. The PJO Annabeth _held up the freaking sky_ for a long, long time. After which she understandably collapsed into exhaustion.

Recall, that Percy had trouble holding the sky up for a few _minutes_. That should tell you something about Annabeth.

She's stubborn, she's strong and she's not going to lie and do a hosepipe impersonation when she gets into trouble. She's badass- and that's something people really, really have to keep in mind, okay?

* * *

**1.d. Sappy!Annabeth**

Sappy!Annabeth thinks romantic thoughts. Having her eyes compared to misty grey skies or Percy getting down on one knee in a moonlit restaurant makes her heart go all aflutter. She lives for beign showered with compliments, gentle kisses, poetic compliments and traditionally romantic scenarios. And that's not all; she reciprocates. She tells (or occasionally sings to) Percy about her undying love for him. And this is Love, mind you. Capital Land all that.

To present the counterpoint; I'd love to point out what happened the last time Percy tried to bare his heart to Annabeth.

_"You're laughing at me," I complained._

_"I am not!"_

_"You are __**so**__ not making this easy."_

_Then she laughed for real, and she put her hands around my neck. "I am never, __**ever**__ going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it."_

See the difference?

Some people are prone to romantic declarations of love and/or melting at them. Annabeth is _not_ one of those people. Empathetically not.

She knows how Percy feels about her, and she trusts him enough not to _require_ constant reinforcing of it via the declarations of undying love. That aspect of their relationship is part of what proves that they are close to each other and care about each other.

Mind you; Sappy!Annabeth, just like DistressedDamsel!Annabeth, can be used. But god, only sparingly. And when I say sparingly, I _mean _sparingly. Annabeth's moments of thawing are going to be few and far in between. Like once-a-year few and far in between.

She may break down or melt _a few times_, in her mind. She may even deign to show it out on that rare occasion. Because she really, really is not prone to exuberant declarations and actions, unless it tearing people into bits with verbal arguments or something. Avoid this type, for the most part.

* * *

**1.e. Shy!Annabeth**

There are stories where Annabeth, especially when confronted with Percy's face (or his muscled chest) turns tomato red, pushes a strand of hair behind her ear and just mutters her way into being part of the wallpaper.

Recall that this is the same girl who presided over a cabin of braniac warriors at the age of thirteen. Possibly _before_ that. Even though there were people in the cabin older than she was.

Recall, also; that leaders are rarely people who stay in the sidelines and meekly follow the crowd.

Annabeth held her post for a _reason._ She tends to be decisive, quick and bossy. Pick up a random scene from any of the books; the only time she even _exhibits_ uncertainty is when someone she cares about is in deep trouble.

Which is why that image of her being afraid to speak to her crush or stand up to her rivals is disturbing. Stuffing a bossy, independent demigoddess into a meek, shy girl results in you getting an amalagamation of Annabeth's looks and name and someone else's everything else.


	15. How To Write Annabeth Chase, Part 2

**NOTES YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO READ:**

**To people who have just stumbled over the Guide; Welcome, and excuse any excess sarcasm. I sometimes get carried away.**

**To the people who are following this Guide: No, this isn't an underhanded ploy to get to the top of the PJO archive. Three new type!Annabeths (starting with type 1.h) have been added to the end of this chapter, and that is why this chapter came in your alerts.  
**

**This happened because I dispensed with the examples and reorganized the chapters to fit in better with the word-count structure. Because I like my stuff organized. Except when I don't.  
**

* * *

_**4.2.1. How to Write Annabeth Chase, Part 2**_

_ie. Part the Second of a long, long thing_

* * *

**1.f. Sweetheart!Annabeth**

She adorable, she's pretty. She'd the big-sister mentor every new girl at camp looks up to. She's always willing to lend a hand and she always has a kind word and smile to give anyone who approaches her. Everyone loves her, she loves everyone and anyone who hates her is just being a bitch.

A lot of my Annabeth!Types involve Percy as romantic lead, mostly because that's where she gets herself mutilated the most. I finally have one that's just a bit more general. *cheers*

Annabeth has her good qualities, but infinite patience, abundant kindness and forgiving friendliness don't particularly feature in her resume. Which is why writing an Annabeth who spends most of her time being pleasant to her friends and generally being nice to every single person in the vicinity is a bad idea.

Because, from whatever we've seen, she's really not the type to suffer fools gladly. She doesn't seem to be the type to suffer _anyone _less smarter than she is gladly. Needless to say, this means that she doesn't really suffer _people_ gladly. And she's definitely not going o go out of her way (which is pretty self-centered) to be nice to them. I figure that if she ever does do something like that, people will start panicking about the apocalypse/an elaborate scheme they'd rather not find themselves trapped into.

Think I'm being overly harsh? Let's illustrate with an example.

Percy wakes up in a camp full of demigods. He's been in a coma for a while. He's just been hunted by a Minatour, injured in the subsequent fight and has generally gone through more in a few days than he has his entire life.

The first thing Annabeth says when she sees him is not, "Hey, how are you?" or "I hope you're feeling better," or "Are you sure you should be up yet?", which are the things a _nice _person would say.

What Annabeth says is, "You drool in your sleep."

I rest my case.

* * *

**1.g. HumanHosepipe!Annabeth**

The drop of a hat (or possibly, her new earrings) can make her weep like a baby. And let's not even get started on Percy going to the Prom with Rachel or Luke finally sinking his evil claws into her. She'll weep (and she'll look lovely while doing it) so much that you'll wonder why she does not get dehydrated.

I did some research for this, because apparently I'm into masochism and can't get enough of it.

There was one thing where Luke kidnapped Annabeth. When she made the requisite "Percy will stop you!" declaration (through her tears, of course), he slapped her. She immediately collapsed to the ground and started to outright bawl because, I quote, it was "too much for her."

And here I repeat myself. The sky, guys. She held up the sky. A slap is going to annoy her, at most. :/ And don't even get me started on EvilOverlord!Luke.

*restrains herself only because EvilOverlord!Luke will get his own special section*

Annabeth's tears can be marvelous narrative weapons, because the general impression you get from her is someone who _doesn't cry easily_. She doesn't cry when she gets physically hurt (knife wound, TLO). She doesn't cry when she gets scared (any number of instances). She cries, as far as I've noticed, when people she cares about (and there really doesn't seem to be that many of them) gets themselves hurt/killed/vanished. And it's more tears of frustration _and_ helplessness than just helplessness. There is a giant difference between the two.

So yes. Teary!Annabeth? Use sparingly. Bring her out only when the situation gets intense and desperate. It will go a long way towards proving that yes, your situation _is_ intense and desperate.

* * *

**1.h. NotSmart!Annabeth**

No, this isn't DumbBlonde!Annabeth. Everyone knows that Annabeth is supposed to be clever, and everyone makes it a point to mention that.

To begin with, there are two types of smart; Book Smart and Street Smart.

Hermione Granger (From Harry Potter, for the benefit of the readers who've just come out from under their rock) is _Book Smart._ She possesses an infinite amount of knowledge, deduction capabilities and perceptive abilities. Ask her for an obscure fact, a possible scenario of actions that may be forthcoming from the big bad or even a bit of relationship advice- she'll give it to you in a heartbeat, and she'll do it well.

Percy Jackson is _Street Smart. _He has a major presence of mind thing going on, and his head and his body usually coordinate seamlessly. He can asses a situation without even realizing that he's doing it, and acting mainly on instinct, he's capable of coming up with quick solutions for rapid-fire scenarios. The Nemean Lion and the battle between him and Antaeus in the Labyrinth are two examples.

(And yes, the Seaweed Brain thing doesn't translate to him being as dumb as a patch of kelp.)

By now, it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that Annabeth is _both._ So when you write her, you're supposed to make her both a know-it-all and a kid who can survive on her wits when she'd thrown out into a random street.

The NotSmart incarnation of Annabeth is a straight-A student and quite possibly the single dominant female in the CHB Arena. But put her into a situation which calls for brains, like calibrating the exact pull you need to swing that boulder into the Giant's face; or put her into a situation that calls for smarts, like how she's going to outmaneuver and trap that second set of Giants. Then watch her fail spectacularly.

Alternatively, a random OC states "Oh my gods, Annabeth. You're so smart!", and then this Annabeth counters that statement brilliantly by taking a trip through a monster-infested wood unarmed and prone to swoons during a war so she can get herself kidnapped.

Your character's _actions_ are what showcase how smart they are. In Annabeth's case, I'd settle for a lack of the common stupidities mainly associated with the PJO fandom heroines. Like failing to take pregnancy precautions when you are a workaholic teenager who's obsessed with her future career.

If your character is supposed to be logical and hyper-competent, make sure it is _consistent. _This is especially true for female characters; because they tend to become prone to swooning and Epically Failing whenever the Hero is nearby.

* * *

**1.i. DaughterofAphrodite!Annabeth**

If the rest of the world is _anything_ like the place I live in, girls think a lot about hair, nails and clothes. And when I say 'a lot', I mean hours-long discussions about the right colours, makeup, combinations and accessories; participated in by pretty much everyone in the vicinity with a double-X chromosome.

But here's the thing about that. Some people find that discussing about these things tend to get irritating after say- the first five minutes. Some girls really don't care all that much. And when clothing discussions happen for hours at a time, they are given to thinking homicidal thoughts.

Take it from someone who has literally hidden herself under pillows while heated accessory discussions happen around her. Multiple times. It gets _infuriating _and you want to go and just strangle someone already_._

There is a trend. Percy asks Annabeth to a Prom/Dance/Karaoke/whatever; and she squeals and runs off to call Thalia, Silena and her OC BFFs. They spend a chapter or so giggling over clothing, makeup and accessories. Then there is a chapter where the girl's clothing is described in excruciating detail.

I repeat. It's a Camp for demigod warriors. Talking about girly things is not a taboo, as such. But long discussions and people actually getting _excited_ over the things? Proceed with the kind of caution you reserve for driving a car through an area strewn with landmines.

* * *

**1.j. EmoAngst!Annabeth **

If you are in possession of an Annabeth who's every thought revolves around the sheer unfairness of her Stepmother hating her, her Dad overlooking her, Thalia getting herself turned into a tree, Luke turning traitor and Percy never, ever going to love her back; you have an EmoAngst!Annabeth.

EmoAngst is a popular character subclassification these days. (For anyone who's interested, I blame the YA surge in Vampire Romance.) Speaking as a person who has gone through her EmoAngst phase, I have to tell you that it's one of the least attractive things your character can possibly be.

Because after a point, it just gets boring.

Specific to Annabeth's case; she strikes me as a person who broods and overanalyzes thing; which is fertile ground for angsting. But she _also_ strikes me as somebody who values being practical. Here's what I've derived from those assumptions;

When you make her angst, I'd advise focusing on something major (Thalia's transformation, Luke's betrayal, Percy's apparent death). Like, Life-or-death-or-eternal-damnation major. Not something like Percy asking Rachel to the Prom. For that last one, I'd personally recommend IceQueen!Annabeth with a side helping of Violent!Annabeth.

Second; don't overdo it. Angst, like drama, is something that should be added to a recipe in small doses. Too much of it is like an over-salted slice of pizza. Because even though it's _pizza_, it will still end up being barely palatable.

* * *

**End Notes: Uh, so I'm apparently not as organized as I thought I was. Sorry?**

**My most sincere apologies to everyone who enjoyed the examples. I really regret the fact that I had to dump them. But the really obviously OOC examples were getting on my nerves and the Every-Other-Character-Goes-WTF examples were mutating into epic proportions. When it actually started developing into a story involving a magical OOC transfer with _continuity, _I knew I had to stop for the good of this Guide as a whole. :/**

What could have been

_"I am going to go punch his soft spot. Excuse me."_

_"Annabeth," Nico dug in his heels, "Calm down."_

_"Calm down. ? Calm down? He just called me babe. He slapped me on the butt. I'm going to go and make sure he can't walk straight for a week-"_

_"Annabeth," Rachel grunted, pulling at her other arm, "He dealt with you when you cried over your nails getting chipped. And he sat with you when you went all Harlequin novel on him. I think he's entitled to some leeway."_

_"I was not that bad-"_

_"Like hell you weren't," Thalia screeched, "Me and Clarisse had to sit through one hour of wardrobe discussions. ONE. HOUR."_

_"But I didn't slap your butt, did I?"_

- Random scribbled scenario for Jerkass!Percy

And it just kept growing. And growing and growing and growing... :/


	16. How To Write Annabeth Chase, Part 3

**Chapter 16: How To Write Annabeth Chase, Part 3**

* * *

**4.1.4. How to Write Annabeth Chase, Part 4**

_where I stop being whiny and start being practical_

* * *

So I've covered most OOC!Annabeth types, including a couple I'm reasonably sure are extinct. Hopefully, that's a strong enough what-not-to-do section.

We now move on to the How_to_writeAnnabeth section. And no, you're not the only one who suspects that I'm doing this purely for the sake of increasing the word/chapter count.

* * *

Let's recap. From the last few chapters, we've established that Annabeth is;

**1. Loyal: **Not the type to give up on people easily, as seen by the Luke fiascos. Applies both to when they are in physical as well as mental trouble.

**2. Brave/Daring: **She doesn't back down easily, and she fights even in cases of her being outmatched; like that time she jumped onto the Manticore when it was about to attack her friend, armed with a puny knife.

Lovely traits, both of them. They're the kind of behavioral characteristics anyone would love to have. They are also things that most action-adventure type protagonists tend to possess, because they're usually required if the writer wants people to identify with, or feel something for the character.

In addition, she is;

**3. Intelligent: **She can think on her feet and has a truckload of information, useless or otherwise, at her disposal.

**4. Competent: **She adapts to situations and can formulate actions based on what's needed at the time.

Naturally, with all the above traits going for her _in addition_ to her good looks and athletic prowess, she is also;

**5. Self-assured: **She doesn't take orders, she gives them. And anyone who thinks they can shatter her self-esteem is having delusions.

All of which kinda blows up the whole sweet, shy, helpless girl-next-door image. To the point where I can safely say that Annabeth Chase is a borderline Mary-Sue.

* * *

Before anyone gets pissed off at me for saying that, hear me out.

She's pretty. Like, really pretty. She's athletic. She's a leader, a warrior, a thinker and presumably an artist. Her godly parent is the patron goddess of wisdom, which probably means that she has moments of extreme insight as well. This probably helps her to form plans and strategies which are typically better than what other people come up with.

Annabeth, I maintain, is a character who is almost perfect. Which is the typical definition of a Mary Sue.

I think I've already mentioned that I don't really agree with _that _particular definition of a Mary-Sue. Because I think that a character who is perfect or almost perfect makes a very good protagonist. Provided they are written with a few twists.

In Annabeth's case (because there are _many_ ways of subverting an almost-Sue, believe me), the twists in question are her flaws. And those aspects of her character, needless to say, tend to get little to no attention. Which is heartbreaking. Because by ignoring Annabeth's flaws, you make her into a romantic ideal to be lived up to, and you stop seeing her as a character with human interactions, emotions and reactions.

And please note that when I say 'flaw', I do not mean '_hurbis'._

Well okay, not strictly true. I do mean hubris; but not in an overwhelmingly literal sense. Many of her flaws have their roots in pride, but the flaws don't start and end with 'pride'.

Since the books are told exclusively from Percy's point of view, so we don't really get a clear view of what _Annabeth_ is thinking. But from the way she's described and the way she acts, you can come up with conclusions.

Please not that these conclusions are largely subjective, based on how you see/interpret a lot of stuff. So just hold off your disbelief (if any) until I get to the bottom and paragraph away about _that._

* * *

**Explicitly Stated**

**6. Arrogant**

And yes, this is the hubris. Or at least the most tangible and obvious part of it. And it can manifest in many, many forms.

Arrogance is the trait you get when you take pride up to the highest level; which is where it would qualify as a _flaw_. 'Pride' as such is not the flaw, _arrogance_ is.

As someone who is arrogant, Annabeth typically tries to dominate situations, listens to other people's opinions reluctantly and will has a very, very hard time admitting she's wrong. Arrogant people are hard to live with, and any scenario where she gets along with everyone sans disagreements, is a little unbelievable.

The actions I stated above are from one extreme of the scale, by the way. Like negative traits increase somebody's personality, the positive traits help temper them into a _likeable_ personality. Annabeth's arrogance will be muted by her logic (if anyone has a better plan, there's a high possibility she'll listen to it, however grudgingly) and loyalty (as much as she dominates her friends, she will care about their opinion).

So you have to combine them, and reach a point in the middle that you're comfortable with. This is where things start getting a little subjective and individual, by the way.

* * *

**Extrapolated Traits**

**7. Possessive**

The other extreme (sort of) to loyalty. 'Possessive' is probably a light term to describe how she acts sometimes.

You may have noticed that she hates it when other people attempt to intrude on people she cares about. She sees Percy _talking_ to Rachel in BotL and gets all frosty (see trait 8 below) on him.

It's not what I would call cutesy. It gets a little worrying. But that's okay, because it's a really, really fun trait to write. Seriously. Jealous Annabeth is hilarious and all kinds of Muse. XD

**8. Temperamental**

There was a line in TLO, where Percy said how Rachel was not at all confusing and easy to understand since she liked to be forthright. Unlike other people. And it's kind of obvious that by 'other people', he means Annabeth.

Annabeth is hard to understand (for Percy, at least) because as close as she is to him, she has moments where she tends to run hot and cold. Mostly when she's _really_ annoyed with him.

She acts, as far as I've noticed, mostly aloof ("I don't give a damn how you're trying to ruin your life this time") when this happens. Like at the Calypso thing and the Rachel thing. But then it can build up and she screams at him ("Oh my gods, I just want to _strangle_ you sometimes!") for tiny things. Just like a lot of normal people, in fact.

The point to note here is that while this behavior is fairly common, not all people in the world get annoyed as easily as Annabeth does. Little things can set her off, but instead of being hot-tempered (think Clarisse or maybe Thalia), she's _temperamental_. It makes things less obvious and more confusing, which is probably why Percy gave up o trying to understand why she acts the way she does.

* * *

**Assumed Traits**

These are traits which I've ran away with (because Annabeth was a little too perfect to write and I needed something to make it a little more screwed up), and which may or may not make sense. Even more so than the last few.

**9. Judgmental**

Judgmental people tend to judge. Quickly, like ten seconds after meeting someone. And following that, the judgment they made tends to build up in strength, to the point where nothing's going to shake them out of it.

Annabeth, bring the daughter of Athena and all, probably isn't entirely judgmental. But she has weaknesses. Strike her somewhere near to what she cares about and she tends to act… irrationally.

The example that alerted me to this as a possible trait was her stepmom. When Percy met her, she looked like a perfectly nice woman in love with her mad-genius husband. Anyone who's read up to before that point would assume, from Annabeth's opinions, that Cinderella's stepmom could have taken _lessons_ from hers.

What I got from it was this: Long, long ago Annabeth got the impression that she was being ignored/abandoned in favour of other people who were obviously evil. And the impression stuck with her, even after her father and stepmother proved her otherwise.

The hard-to-admit-she-was-wrong part comes in here too. But to be fair, she did revise her judgment afterwards. And how anyone uses (or ignores) this possibility is really up to them.

**10. Neurotic**

A neurotic person, for the benefit of those of you who haven't heard the term before; is somebody who pays attention (and subsequently spazzes out over) the tiniest of details.

Considering the fact that Annabeth's motto is "Always, always have a plan," I'm assuming that she gets like this sometimes. Because if you always have a plan, it means that you pay attention to eventualities, options, possibilities and god alone knows what else. And anyone who gets into detail that much has to be at least the slightest bit… obsessive.

I picture her as somebody who, when presented with a situation, automatically starts to analyze possibilities and outcomes and how to manipulate them.

This is not really a flaw, necessarily. It's more of a quirk. But it is also possibly one of the things that make her more irritable than most; which is primarily how I tend to use it.

* * *

**On Subjectivity**

More than anything else I've noted down so far, my interpretation of Annabeth's flaws are subject to well… _being_ interpretations. It's entirely (and from the general impression my sources gave me, highly) possible that you utterly disagree with my assumptions. And that's perfectly all right.

Because fanfiction leaves a lot of room for icing the cake. Not everybody writes every character _exactly_ the same. Just so long as you stick to the basic personality and present them well, bits of embellishment are pretty useful.

However, there's a really faint line between 'acceptable additions' and 'out of character'. It requires some careful handling.

* * *

**Notes:**

Either done or almost done with this part.

* * *

**Chapter 17: Introduction to Original Characters**

* * *

**Notes:** Been a long time. I would dearly love to blame NaNo for the lack of updates. But that would be A supermassive blatant lie. Hopefully, this won't happen again, but I would advise against holding your breath there.

The Annabeth chapters are due for a revamp. Will do that once I'm at the crest of my Annabeth-Bipolarism again. Wouldn't be fair otherwise.


	17. Introduction to Original Characters

**Notes:** Been a long time. I would dearly love to blame NaNo for the lack of updates. But that would be A supermassive blatant lie. Hopefully, this won't happen again, but I would advise against holding your breath there.

The Annabeth chapters are due for a revamp. Will do that once I'm at the crest of my Annabeth-Bipolarism again. Wouldn't be fair otherwise.

* * *

**Part Five: The Creation and Manipulation of Original Characters**

_(ie; Exploring the Deadly Swamps of OC Creation)_

* * *

An Original Character, just to avoid any possible ambiguity (which is really not likely, but hey- why take chances?) is a character who does not appear in the Original books, but plays a role in a fic. The OC domain, it is to be noted, is also the birthground of the dreaded Mary-Sue.

I haven't yet been able to peg down a perfectly workable definition for the Sue yet, because there are always exceptions and not every opinion on the subject seems absolute. The most I could find were a few key traits which seem to commonly occur among the MS population. But before that;

* * *

**5.1. Types of Original Characters**

**a. The Protagonist **

Your Hero. Your main man or woman. If you are writing an OC-centric story; he, she or they are what it should be focused on.

Common challenges with making a normal Hero include the problem of balancing out things so that they are, while embodying the very common heroic/anti-heroic characteristics, is still a likeable, individual personality distinct from everyone else around them. Making a Hero who can be _replaced_ with little to no trouble by anyone in the cast (and I mean personality/influence on everyone else wise, not superpower-wise) is generally a bad move.

So. Protagonists in general should be commonplace enough to be identifiable (or at least sympathetic, if you're going the Anti-Hero way), but individual enough to be distinct. It's actually a pretty tall order, and they're probably the hardest of the types to create. This doesn't stop everyone and their goldfish from having a go at them, though.

**b. The Supporting Character**

Whoever plays a very important part in the story in a positive or sort-of-positive role; but is still secondary to the Hero. Oftentimes, what separates a supporting character from a cameo character is the considerably greater influence he/she has on the protagonist or the plot.

Okay. Protagonist OCs? Highly overrated in most mediocre-to-bad fanfictions. Especially when compared to the amount of neglect the supporting characters go through to service the primary character.

Take a good look at pretty much any worthwhile story, and ask yourself who your favourite character is. Chances are that nine times out of ten, the character you pick is _not_ the Hero. This is because supporting characters often enhance the overall storyline in ways that the Hero is simply not capable of.

A story is not just comprised of just one person; and the Hero should not be able to do everything. Supporting characters often end up being more well-liked, developed and exploitable than the Protagonist. Neglecting them is a bad, bad idea.

**c. The Antagonist**

The thing with the antagonist? Making them can be _fun._

The last couple of types have rules. Lines. Borders. It'll take a better writer than me, for example, to make a sympathetic protagonist of a sociopathic madwoman. Even the most hard-hearted sidekick is better off with motive and history to back up their actions. With antagonists, making them sympathetic is merely an _option_. Sociopathy and psychopathy are perfectly acceptable substitutes.

But there is one thing you should probably be careful about. The antagonist should be a challenge to the protagonist/sidekicks. Competent villains make a story more interesting than it otherwise would be. And yes, this applies to your random High School Alpha Bitch as well. Smart bad guys also enhance the plotline. If your story is a quest-plot or anything which has action/adventure elements, you must pay attention to your villain. Give him/her some love. Chances are that you won't regret it.

**d. The Cameo Characters**

Cameo Characters? Also fun_._ And this time without the added bonus of not having to worry too much about motive, means, opportunity or anything else. Much.

A cameo character appears in one scene or two, and does not have a significant part to play in the main storyline. He/she/it may provide information, humor or a convenient distraction; but their character never really shows up in a position significant to the plot. Alternatively, the character might have significance to the plot, but he/she does not undergo any development despite how essential he/she is to the plot.

The cameos can be treated like a somewhat more entertaining non-living object. But if you are using them, try to limit their numbers to very little. Random cameo character popping up all over the place with no reason can get very confusing. And annoying.

* * *

_Note One:_ There are always, always exceptions. You don't really need a sympathetic protagonist or a despicable antagonist.

_Note Two:_ Seriously, this is only a how-to Guide for people who're starting out on their expedition to the OC swamps. People who have some amount of experience about these things can do whatever they want with their characters. It is, after all, a learning process.

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**End Notes:** Up Next. The Long-Anticipated Sue Chapter. It could get convoluted. o.O


	18. Defining the Mary Sue, Part 1

**Notes:** In response to the people who expressed their disappointment about the OC section being so short: Um, no. That last chapter was definitely not all you're going to see of the OC-creation section. It promises to be hideously long and headache-inspiring from where I'm standing.

On the other hand, I am sorry about posting such a tiny chapter after months of not updating. Hopefully, this one will make up for it a little.

Title was suggested by Tzadikim, although I couldn't remember it completely. So it was tweaked a little.

* * *

_**5a. The Good, The Bad and The Disturbing, Part 1**_

_(ie; an attempt at defining the Mary-Sue)_

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"_Mary Sue is a derogatory term primarily used in __Fan Fic__ circles to describe a particular type of character. This much everyone can agree on. What that character type is, exactly, differs wildly from circle to circle, and often __from person to person__."_

- From the Tvtropes page on Mary-Sues

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A Sue is a very, very relative term. Put a group of people together and ask them to discuss Sues, and it's possible you'll get a different opinion from every person. What's Sueish for one person might not be Sueish for another. It is very much a personal thing, and trying to find a definition everyone will agree on might not be a good way to spend your time. Sure, there are MS Litmus Tests. But keep in mind that these are made by people who already have a personal idea of what a Sue is like. And if that wasn't enough, most MS tests have disclaimers which point out that a high score is not necessarily indicative of a Mary Sue.

Clear-cut, this is not. And it doesn't help that there are many different _types _of Sues, each of which are classified as Sues based on entirely different criteria.

**A List of Mary-Sue Archetypes**

**i. Purity Sue:** _Almost always_ female. So pure and incorruptible that everyone loves her. People fall over themselves trying to protect her, and her death will make them angst like there's no tomorrow. She's the light of everyone's world. No exceptions.

**ii. God Mode Sue: **May be male or female. The talents/superpowers he/she has are uncountable, immeasurable and above all inexplicable. He/she could slice Superman into bits with his/her katana without requiring the use of Kryptonite, and still have enough MP left over to create an alternate universe.

**iii. Relationship Sue: **Female, mostly, but males aren't unheard of; especially in slash fics. Exists for the sole purpose of taking over the heart, body, soul and usually the characterization of a popular member of the canon cast. Established relationships are often a casualty in this case.

**iv. Sympathetic Sue:** Female or occasionally male. Possessed of a backstory filled with angst (typically involving parental abandonment, abuse, dead goldfish and so on). This is presumably done for the purpose of tugging at the reader's heartstrings. It doesn't really work, primarily because of the sheer amount of whining involved.

**v. Jerk Sue: **Female or male. Treats people like garbage and is generally a Jerkass. Inexplicably this will be accompanied not by said people trying to strangle him/her, but by them trying to commit suicide because he/she does not approve of them. Because in-universe, her actions are always justified.

**vi. Black Hole Sue:** Can be of either sex. Recognized by how anything she/he comes into contact with, be it a plot point, character or situation, immediately arranges itself into a form designed to suit his/her purposes. Reality warper.

/end list

While many common Sue traits are shared by multiple -if not all- types, said traits may not necessarily prove that a person is a Sue. Anybody who's stunningly beautiful/handsome, possessed of a truckload of superpowers and complete with a Meaningful Badass Name is not necessarily a Sue by definition. It really, really depends on how you write them. And this is important, because when you write them badly, you get Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. In general, any and all of the 'common' Mary Sue traits _can_ be turned on it's head and poked at till it's justified, makes sense and actually acts as a plot point.

But for people who aren't looking to make a statement by subverting clichés and just want to make decent characters, here's a checklist of common MS indicators you might want to avoid.

Note that the common element in everything listed below is the _lack of realism._ **To make any of them work, all you need is an explanation, a justification or sufficient buildup wrapped up in competent writing. Because **_**traits alone do NOT make a Sue.**_

I cannot emphasize that enough.

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_**A General List of Traits Associated with Suesim**_

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**1. Speshulness of Physical Appearance and Names **

The least important part, really. Since what a character looks like is nowhere near as important as what a character does, you can easily have an OC who fits into each and every one of these traits and still make them very much a Non-Sue. But in case of beginner screw-ups, it is also the most recognizable, most obvious stumbling point. Which is probably why it's generally listed first.

**a. Hair**

When describing an MS, the part of her (or him, but mostly her) which gets more attention than any other is usually the hair, because there are a lot of things you can do with it. The OC may typically have Rapunzel Hair that reaches down to her knees or floats out behind her like a wedding train. She might have hair in of unusual colour (like blue, purple, green or white in a tween/teen) or unusual highlights (like silver streaks on purple hair) or multicolured hair (blue and green and purple existing together in total harmony).

Again, this only applies in non-Anime universes. Especially in the shonen genre. Anime Universes have Hair Laws which defy time, gravity and circumstance. But PJO is, unfortunately, not an animeverse. Tread with caution.

**b. Facial Features**

MS facial features are not usually described that well. Mostly, they get by with adjectives, 'stunning', 'striking', 'flawless' and 'beautiful' being popular words.

This is actually enough in volume, if rather off-putting in content (because you really should know that calling your character's features 'flawless' is a good way to push her/him into MS-ocean with dumbbells around the ankles). Facial features rarely play a role in whatever happens in a story, unless it's in direct relation to a family member or an evil twin or something. People might care enough about a well-loved character to grasp eagerly at little tidbits like 'snub-nosed' or 'thin-lipped', but chances are that a _detailed_, descriptive paragraph when introducing an OC will be skimmed over or perhaps even skipped altogether by the reader. If you really want to add in facial details, slip them in later on in the story, when the character is better established.

One feature which actually gets detailed attention more often than not is, of course, the eyes. They may be described as large and long-lashed (cheesy in itself), but they're mostly described based on the colour. Again, the kind of colors that commonly occur in nature (brown, blue, hazel) are largely ignored in favour of uncommon (statistically, green qualifies for this; it's still better than red or purple) or outright exotic shades (silver, gold). Also, the eyes might change shades in different lights or moods, which while _possible_ is something of a run-away-screaming-from-story-NOW aspect. Try to avoid. _Realism,_ folks.

**c. Body Type**

Now, as a species, we humans have a truckload of body image issues. It _really _translates into bad writing.

The girls will typically be tall and skinny with chests much bigger than the rest of them put together. The guys, despite being in their early teens/tweens will have muscular or 'athletic' bodies which make people drool all over them. Nobody will be overweight. A guy will never, ever be 'skinny'. Perfect, evenly tanned skin will be genetic. And yeah; skinny girls will typically fight with swords about half their size. Not going to happen. You need a decent amount of muscle strength to manipulate weapons or kick butt at fighting.

It's one thing to make your character attractive; everyone does that, canon or not. Quite another to make him/her _inhumanly_ attractive. The first is a tool to drawing in your average thinking reader. The second serves to make them run away screaming.

**d. Clothing**

Firstly, clothes don't really matter in a story. No, seriously. Nobody cares about the designer jeans as much as the person wearing them. Keeping clothing description to a minimum is the way to go here. Especially if the Prom Dress in question is champagne-colored silk and shiny and glitteringly sexy with an off-shoulder strap, a poofy skirt and a wide black belt. Or something like that. Settle for a maximum of two non-run-on sentences. A _maximum._

Second. Armor is not sexy in PJOverse. Again, this is not an Anime. Greek armor is chunky, heavy and _effective_. The chainmail bikini might work for Red Sonja, but needless to say, it leaves pretty much all of the rest of your OC unprotected. This also applies to designer clothes or gowns. And heels. It's really hard to move in the things, despite how easy Wonder Woman makes it look. That's because she's _Wonder Woman_.

(And possibly because Comic Books are like Anime and Manga in the sense that they follow a different set of Universal Rules when compared to books. But still. Wonder Woman.)

In addition, since there are books, you have to deal with the problem of them getting tired and sweaty and messy. Nobody's going to look like they 'came off a fashion ramp' after a battle with Kampe. Never state otherwise.

**e. Names**

Common naming Suesim symptoms include long, four-or-more-parts names (Alluralba Desdomena Entagora Tetramena Arubiz), unusual names liberally using the letters X and Z (Zestex, Xiyaz) and exotic-theme naming (Gemstones/Colours- Violet, Sapphire, Amethyst, Beryl, Emerald, Onyx; Celestial bodies- Luna, Stella; General spookiness- Ebony, Raven, Trinity). Tread with caution, which should really go without saying now. The resulting side effects are also often ignored, because when your name is Raven Lightsaber Silverwings, you're likely to get more uncontrollable sniggering than gasps of envious awe.

* * *

**2. The Superpowers-and-Skills Symptoms**

Another thing to look for when you're seeking out blatant Sueism are the abilities a character might possess, normal or abnormal. The distribution of abilities is one of the ways in which you can formulaically screw up.

**a. The List of Everything/Informed Ability **

When you weave your story, you try to weave it to be as airtight as possible. Extra details which you have decided on but which you aren't going to actually use in the story have no place in your story. Your fic is a limited-employment venue, not a place to broadcast about everything little thing you want to say about your character. Especially if the thing in question is an ability, because excessive abilities generally serve as a major indicator of MS-ness.

For instance, let's imagine that your OC has a wonderful singing voice. It's something you have decided on about her, so you make someone in the vicinity comment on her wonderful singing voice. But it's never brought up again because your OC is too busy harnessing her newly-discovered superpowers into slaying monsters.

Mentioning she has a wonderful singing voice in the beginning and never bringing it up again serves to; (a) waste e-page-space, (b) immediately serves to make an impression in the mind of the reader that your OC is supposed to be 'ideal', and therefore an MS, and (c) leads to cases of the _Informed Ability _phenomenon, which is a bad thing in itself. Informed Ability is what happens when the reader is told that the character is something, and subsequent actions of the character disproves it.

A classic example is Bella Swan's supposed intelligence in _Twilight_. She's mentioned to be in a bunch of AP classes, and she's supposedly mature and well-adjusted, if a little gloomy. After which her boyfriend leaves her and she jumps off cliffs in an attempt to hear his voice again.

True wuv does not excuse stupidity. Not to that extent. Your characters are supposed to have personalities independent of their love interests, thank you.

(Please note that I'm not a Twilight-hater by any stretch of imagination. I just like to overanalyze and criticize everything I read. Including PJO. Or HoO, rather. I'm kinda whiny that way.)

**b. The Natural/The Instant Expert**

A character comes to Camp. He/she meets a few campers, he/she is given a tour. After a point, he/she is taken to an arena and given a deadly weapon, because that's what CHB is all about.

Fast forward to the next hour, where the resident supreme weapon-user at Camp is moaning and groaning on the ground at the OC's feet. Because the OC is that good at the weapon; and so wonderfully and naturally talented that he/she barely needs any training.

Needless to say, this is very _**wrong.**_

Nobody is going to be good at doing something they've never seen or practiced in a few hours or days. People can be fast learners who grasp the basic pretty quickly, yes. And the ADHD/battle reflexes thing gives us more leeway for fast learning. But try not to make your OC the 'best' at anything in a day, week, month or even a year. Thisis compounded by the fact that you have to work harder to get to higher skill levels. Like in role-playing games; getting from level one to level two is easy. Getting from level 70 to level 71 is going to take you _hours_ of grinding.

As an example, we have Percy disarming Luke at one of his first sword-practices, using a difficult move. But that was _one_ move. Luke was able to trounce him soundly in actual battle for years afterwards because it took Percy that long to become a swordsman on par with Luke. That's very good handling of a character who shows aptitude for something that can be _developed_ into an extraordinary skill over time.

Oh, and this also applies to sex, for those of you who are inclined to write smutfics. Virgin sex is going to be awkward, and not just for the girl.

**c. The Exotic Talent**

This is what you get when you give your character a talent for which there is no precedence in canon. Typically happens because someone thinks the talent in question is 'cool' and wants their OC to have it for exactly that reason.

It's natural for an Apollo kid to have some amount of musical talent and/or foresight. An Aphrodite kid would be perfectly capable of picking out a stellar wardrobe in three minutes flat, even if he/she would rather spend hours trying outfits on and admiring herself. You can even tweak things to the extremes with sufficient justification; like Aphrodite kids having alarmingly accurate feelings about people who would match up well with each other, whether they like it or not. Or Dionysus kids developing a keen interest on the topic of insanity afflicting the human mind. Hermes kids may show an embarrassing aptitude for shepherding. Kids of Zeus may talk to airborne species or may be able to influence the people around them more easily than anyone else. As the job descriptions for the Olympians are rather vague, the possibilities for never-before-seen-in-the-books superpowers are _endless._ Let your crazy-powers index soar into the skies!

But pulling new superpowers out of thin air is where you draw the line. Under no circumstances will your character exhibit a power which has no connection whatsoever with his/her godly parent's sphere of influence. Justify your OC's superpowers, but stop and abandon if the path gets too convoluted. Creativity works here. :)

**d. The Super-Accessories/Familiars**

When you have a half-blood OC, you naturally want to give him/her a weapon. And you want the weapon to have some kind of meaning, which is perfectly understandable. Make note, however, that very few people in PJOverse have true, named weapons. Most of the extras get by using your run-of-the-mill sharp sword from the armoury. Weigh the importance of your character against the people who actually have named weapons, and decide if he/she gets one or not.

Regarding unusual weapons; remember than the people in Camp go there for training, and that most weapons used in the training are Greek in origin. There are a ton of melee weapons from different parts of the world which may be used instead, and quite a few of them are… innovative. If your OC uses a hunga munga, an urumi or ninja stars, make sure that (a) he/she has a reason for knowing about/using this weapon and (b) he/she has some venue from which he/she can get the training.

A familiar is a magical animal companion associated with a magic-user. OCs tend to have these to a large extent. It seems to be fairly rare in the PJO universe, however. The only real known case is Daedalus/Mrs. O'Leary and a case in SoN which I will not mention due to spoiler possibilities.

Try using a Greek creature, for starters. And try to make its' presence _matter_ in the story. A familiar should have a role, and should not exist purely for the purpose of making you character look more badass than he/she would be otherwise.

**e. The Superpower Lottery**

Imagine an OC.

He is a Son of Zeus. He has the general powers of theZeus clan. Shockwave abilities, skywalking, super-battle-skills and whatnot. He's fighting a random monster.

The monster attacks. He retaliates. The monster is strong. The monster is competent. The monster is actually smart, and the SoZ suddenly realizes that he's not just fighting one superpowered being, but also the hundreds of minions the being has placed in the city above which the fight is happening. The SoZ's eyes narrow at this treachery, and he decides that it's time to Get Dangerous.

He calls down lighting from the skies, strong enough to destroy the city and everything in it. He calls the winds to speed him up, making him move as fast as the speed of sound. He calls to his sword, and it flickers with lightning, allowing him to easily slice through the thick armored skin of the monster and decapitate it. Instant victory, which was obvious because the extent of power of the SoZ made it clear that he had won the superpower lottery. The poor monster and his minions monster didn't stand a chance.

While having a character who's powerful, intelligent and capable of thinking on their feet is by no means a bad thing, the thing with stories is that they survive on _conflict_. Easy victories can be used, but only sparingly. Too much of this will make the story boring. And, in connection, there should be limits or downsides to your OC's powers. Unlimited, omnipotent power is an option which will leave the rest of your story in the dust.

There are always more ways to win a battle than by physically overpowering an enemy. They usually tend to be at least as interesting too, if not more.

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**End Notes: **A few more things to cover in this one. Should be done by the next chapter.

Also, sorry the typos. I'm correcting them, but I seem to be overlooking a few in every read-through. :/


	19. Defining the Mary Sue, Part 2

**Notes: **Somewhat shorter than the last chapter, sorry. But unless I post semi-regularly, this is going to go into a decline again.

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_**5a. The Good, The Bad and The Disturbing, Part 2**_

_(ie; an attempt at defining what constitutes the Mary-Sue)_

* * *

**3. Defining the Personality**

Your character's personality, needless to say, plays a large part in getting someone to decide if they are a Sue or not. The traits from the two previous sections can be tweaked into submission with some amount of effort to add to the overall story. Messing up your character's personality? Not so much.

He has all the virtues I hate and none of the vices I admire.

**a. The Perfect Hero/Informed Flaws**

One common denominator that's applicable to pretty much all incarnations of the Mary Sue is perfection. Personality-perfection is not as glaringly obvious as physical flawlessness or superpowered excellence, but it's a lot more damaging in the long run. Because if your character is sweet, nice, confident, intelligent, wise and smart at the same time, they're somewhat unrealistic and (more importantly) will make quite a lot of readers think longingly of chainsaws and torture chambers.

So how are you supposed to get out of that mess? Giving them flaws is one option.

Flaws are _not_ the only method you can adopt to make a protagonist with many virtues palatable. However, they are somewhat simpler than the other methods, most of which involve creative writing. The downside to this is that giving an OC flaws is delicate work which can easily backfire.

Firstly, if you're giving your OC a flaw, it _has to be a genuine liability_. Common not-flaws like a short temper or stubbornness actually have the potential to be massively damaging. You get angry at people for little or no reason, most of them are going to get fed up with you in a while. Be stubborn at the wrong time for the wrong reason, and in a place like the PJOverse, your actions can have some pretty serious consequences. Use them. A flaw which only acts up where it can do little to no damage is not a flaw. It's a Sue trait, and not a particularly redeemable one.

Second. Be very, _very_ careful if you plan to use 'short-tempered' and 'stubborn' as character flaws. They're the two most commonly used, as well as most commonly abused, of all flaws. They tend to be written in such a way that the flaws aren't really portrayed as flaws.

Third, physical flaws are not personality flaws. Clumsiness is very, very thoroughly not a flaw. It _is_ a liability at a battle-themed Camp, but liabilities are quite different from flaws. If the clumsy person angsted and worried and sulked about it so much that she/he never really learned anything, _that_ would be a flaw. In most cases, this also applies to the flaw of the Reluctant Hero/Heroine. Tread with caution.

Fourth. If your OC has a whole bunch of traits which mark him/her out as an extraordinary person, a single, occasionally seen flaw is not going to cut it. People are usually a mix of good traits and bad traits, and it helps if they have a collection of vices to balance out their collection of virtues.

And you _need_ to use virtues and vices, because making your character completely unremarkable personality-wise is almost as damaging as making them perfect. The self-insert cardboard cutout character tends to bore people into a coma.

**b. The Emotionally Static/Inexplicable Emotions**

The two most important things that define a character are (a) the personality and (b) the relationships he/she has with other characters. When it comes to (b), it helps if the emotions behind the reactions your character goes through make sense from when reasoned through. This, of course, is sometimes not the case.

When a character remains in the exact same emotional state irrespective of external circumstances, they are emotionally static. Loving parents murdered in a monster attack? Shed a tear or two, and then forget all about them. Best friend betrayed you? Be saddened over her fate, then jump back into battle like you always did. Love interest gets turned to stone? Angst about it and find a replacement in the next chapter. Just been told you're a demigod? Blink once and ask where you can find your destined weapon.

Events have consequences. Big events have big consequences, especially for people most affected by them. Sometimes, it can take years for the consequences to wear off. Sometimes, it's possible that they never do. When putting in a tragedy or a major upheaval, make sure your character goes through the emotional trauma proportional to exactly that.

The other end of the spectrum is where great drama occurs over things which are largely pointless, or where disproportional drama occurs over things which are seriously not worthy of having _that_ much of an impact on the OC. Suppose a guy your OC has a crush on dates a romantic rival her three weeks before the CHB prom (HA!). Following it up with a chapter or more about how depressed she is and how her life makes no sense anymore will get you eyerolls and a facepalm. Angst is fine. Getting upset is fine. But for the love of the gods don't treat romantic disasters with the kind of reactions you reserve for the end of the world/everyone you care about.

A special note connected to this; 'love' is not an easy emotion. It is far from a simple emotion. It is the easiest emotion to screw up. If you are planning to use the word in a romantic context even once in your entire fic, make sure the characters have sufficient buildup to get to 'love'. Instant true love is a recipe for disaster in almost all cases. Also try not to use it to justify actions which are a t the pinnacle of stupidity. Love does not excuse a sudden transformation into a blithering idiot.

**c. Static Development**

A story often involves character development. Which is to say, the events and actions of the story must have an impact on the OC, change her, refine her or make her go through hell, possibly all at the same time. A static character happens when there's no appreciable difference in the OC between the beginnings and ends of the story. And it's not the physical/plot-driven differences (say, Farm Boy to Once and Future King), but the emotional growth (for example, uncertain to confident) that is important here.

It is actually possible to write stories without considerable character development, especially for peripheral characters (on the other hand, don't ever _think_ about trying to do it with the main character). And I'm going to go into series nobody has really heard about to illustrate this, so excuse me for that. It's even going to pop up again later on in the section, because the main character Tavi is a study in Gary-Stu traits if I ever saw one. But for the moment, let us focus on Ehren and Kitai.

Ehren starts off rule-bound, uncertain, and inclined to jawdrop at Tavi over his plans. He grows sneaky, clever and confident (but still inclined to jawdrop at Tavi over his plans, because some things are universal). The transition is smooth, gradual and happens over a span of years, chronologically. In contrast, Kitai is always confident, intelligent and competent (rather like Annabeth, when I think about it) and while there is a development in her between books one and two, she remains largely the same for the rest of the books. It's one of the reasons why despite being a lovely character in her own right, she falls very far below Ehren on my list of favourites.

Coming to PJO, it is also one of the reasons why Annabeth tends to do the same when compared to say, Clarisse. In spite of having little to no screentime , Clarisse grew a _lot_ as a character; getting added dimensions, more flesh on her bones and at least one crowning moment of "holy shit, that girl is badass". Annabeth, by contrast, is established firmly by book one and remains largely the same till book five, and has most of her more impressive moments in the first three books. (This is a personal opinion, and of course, you may feel differently and are at _complete_ liberty to tell me so; especially if you have reasons. I would love to hear them.)

Character development is a powerful tool, and serves to emphasis events in your story. Use it wisely and use it often.

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**4. Relationships with Other Characters**

As might have been mentioned by me at least twice, your character is primarily defined by his/her interactions with other people. Yes, the OC has a personality and all that, but the most common way of actually showing said personality is through interactions with other people. And the reactions of other characters is a large section of why a Sue is called a Sue.

**a. The Charmspeaker/Love at First Glance/Easily Forgiven**

To summarize: unquestioning acceptance, inhumanly persuasive OCs and the ensuing special treatment may not be a good direction to take.

The worst offender of the type is the Love at First Glance subclass. And no, I'm not talking about how the OC meets Nico and there is instant mutual true love. I'm talking about how everyone, from Chiron to Lupa to the main PJO cast to the harpies instantly love them and feel they are special. The OC is instantly catapulted into a position of prominence regardless of origin or experience. Avoid unless you have justification (like, for instance, a child of Hades would be put under much more scrutiny than a new kid of Aphrodite or Hermes, but on the other hand, they would be by default treated as outcasts by most of Camp).

The second kind of offender is the Charmspeaker (yes, I'm making the classification names as I go along, and no, this is not an I-hate-Piper rant), whereby everyone around the OC turns into yes-men (or women). What the OC says is always right, and again, always put into prominence. Not to say the OC _has_ to have wrong opinions/suggestions, but they must never ascend to a state of prominence so evident that her/his word is what everyone pays attention to in every discussion. Unless of course, there's buildup and justification, but seriously, just assume that applies to everything written here.

The third kind of offender is where and given faults, flaws and mistakes (assuming they have any in the first place, which might be a stretch) are handwaved away, effectively returning the OC into the same position she/he was in before. Or to put it another way, a disregard of consequences or actions, be they good or bad. Many Silena fanfics, for instance, really downplay the fact that when all was said and done, she was a traitor. Yes, she redeemed herself. No, it does not make her past sins just vanish; it only _eclipses_ them. They are still there, and they were pretty bad. (Then again, this could just be my personal opinion, but the general idea still stands. Anti-hero OCsc should be written keeping this in mind.)

**b. The Black Hole for Canon Characterization/Proximity Stereotyping **

Wherein being near the OC causes unspeakable things to happen to the Canon cast of PJO. For example, suppose the OCs' principal love interest is Percy. There is a huge ensuing possibility that whenever Percy is around her/him, he turns into a romantic sap (which is not really a Percy trait, or at least it wasn't in PJO). It is possible that Annabeth, being the principal rival love interest, turns into a screeching harpie who tries (and repeatedly fails) to kill, maim and/or embarrass the OC. Alternately, it is possible that Rachel undergoes this treatment while Annabeth suddenly realizes that oh hell, no, she never liked Percy _that_ way and the OC is so mindblowing that she should be given a chance at having him fro herself.

Make sure the canon characterizations don't change when near the OC. This is important. It's one of the most glaring, obvious and annoying indicators of Sueism. Bad enough if the OC him/herelf is a wreck. It's worse when they turn beloved characters into wrecks with them.

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**End Notes:** Only one more chapter for MS traits, I promise. :)


	20. Defining the Mary Sue, Part 3

**Notes: **Apologies for the long illustrative example at the end of this chapter. You may skip it if you like, it's just my love for manipulated ciches. XD

* * *

_**5a. The Good, The Bad and The Disturbing, Part 3**_

_(ie; an attempt at defining the Mary-Sue)_

* * *

**5. Story Elements**

Dealing with plot and sequence of the story. There are typically a few well-trodden avenues which are best left behind in the forests of cliché. Like, for instance;

**a. The Spotlight Stealer**

All right, so your OC is the Chosen One. He/she needs to save the world. He/she is important. He/she, therefore, needs a considerable amount of screen time to do all the things he/she is supposed to do. But in doing this, there is an exclusive-to-fanfics problem you might encounter, especially if the story you're writing uses canon characters in a large proportion.

Fanfiction takes place in an established world, with established rules and established characters. When the Spotlight Stealer enters, she/he effectively reorganizes the astronomical patterns of the PJO universe, becoming the sun (or the black hole) that everything else orbits around. Every other character, in contrast is reduced considerably in significance and screentime.

In PJOverse, the established characters are important. Demoting them to extras in a new story in favor of a more talented, more accomplished, more touched-by-destiny protagonist may not really be received well. Percy, Annabeth and all the rest have their own talents and strengths. Since a story is basically a latticework of many characters, try to allow everyone time to shine (or AT LEAST, try not to showcase them as completely incompetent or insignificant with respect to the main character), be it canon characters or secondary OCs. Equal opportunity rights, people.

**b. The Deus Ex Machina (ie, The God out of the Machine)**

For those of you who don't frequent TV Tropes, a dues ex machina is what you call a situation where a previously unheard-of event occurs, thereby solving a major conflict or a massive problem with very little effort. Effectively a god (or any unforeseen, influential force/character/sudden event) shows up out of a machine (ie, from something/someplace that does not logically make any _sense_) and clears everything up by casually waving a hand over the situation.

To say that this is annoying and anticlimactic would be an understatement. Take, for instance, the fact that Bella Swans newborn vampire abilities completely depower the main two offensive vampires in the Volturi in _Breaking Dawn_. I have lost count of the amount of times I've heard people complain about how the promise of a battle just went up in a puff of clear smoke. Try not to do this. If you're planning to avoid a battle, throw hints into the story that you _are_ trying to avoid a battle, instead of spending the previous few chapters forming an army (most of whom, if you think about it, will have to feed on the humans from the nearby area). It'll help.

Coming back to the OC, try not to give them a last-minute superpower which is conveniently exactly what's needed to further the plot or solve a problem. While doing such a thing in a battle or situation which is not that important is just introducing a new power, doing it at the climax is just pulling random things out of nowhere.

**c. The Perils in the Past**

Ah, _backstory_.

Giving a character a unique and identifiable backstory is one of the most commonly used methods of generating interest in the OC. Sometimes, it works wonderfully well. Sometimes… it doesn't. How any backstory is received depends on both content and presentation. In content, attention must be given towards minimizing the volume. You may have possibly prepared a long, detailed list of all the events that affected your OC from birth to the moment she/he comes to CHB, which is completely fine and probably a very good thing to do. It is better, however, to exercise restraint when it comes to how much of said backstory you _reveal in the story_.

To illustrate; a while ago I finally got some free time, blew off the dust on my _Pottermore_ account and slogged through the _Philospher's Stone_ section. The rewards were detailed notes on Minerva McGonagall and her life; which were utterly delightful to read. However, as interesting as her backstory was, it wouldn't have played any part in the main storyline about Harry and him defeating Voldemort and thus never found its' way into the story. Similarly, all we know about Hermiones' parents is the fact that they are Dentists, because they don't play much role to the story apart from having and raising their daughter (admittedly something to be proud of, but still).

By contrast, we get quite a bit about Dumbledore by the end. We get _plenty_ about Snape. Both of these characters have events in their lives which are _integral_ to the plot of the series, and that is the only reason why it is mentioned.

Minimize your volume of backstory. Because if it does not _matter_ to the story, the casual reader does not care. They don't want to know all the gazillion ways the world was unfair to your OC and nobody really, really wants to know about the amount of angst she/he went through in getting over (or not) it.

Which brings us to the angst. Dear god, the _angst._

For the love of god, don't try to make characters' story an angst-fest in an attempt to gain sympathy from the audience. Angst in large doses results only in consistent eye-rolling and gagging, and does not equal a story. Because however tragic the dead goldfish may be, the OC is not going to think about it at a crucial moment and lose a decisive battle.

Then again, demigods are not known for their attention span, but still. Minimize angst. Give your character only as much angst they can handle. They'll function a lot better that way, and a non-functional character who can do nothing but whine is the last thing you need for a protagonist.

**d. The Coddled MC**

Okay, that thing about too much angst? Well, here's the other end.

Lois McMaster Bujold (author of the Vorkosigan Saga), sums it up pretty well. "The rule for finding plots for character-centered novels, is to ask: 'So what's the worst possible thing I can do to _this_ guy?' And then do it."

When in the story, it is your sacred duty as a writer to be merciless. Your characters are wonderful, well-developed and you love them. But this should not prevent you from raining down horrors and complicated situations that then _serve to develop the character in some way_. Characters can make or break a story, and their struggles and conflicts are important.

This does not omit the possibility of happy endings, by the way. The additive to the above quote (which I can't seem to find) states that the character should be put only into situations he or she can learn from. You can learn a lot from a happy ending; just make sure the path isn't all about a well-adjusted, mature OC who experiences undying true love and easily defeated minions. Because that, of course, would be much, _much_ worse than a downer ending.

**e. Genetic Matters **

We now move into the exclusive section for PJO. Which is to say, the kids with unusual/never-heard-of ancestry. Technically, it is one of the ways you can try to be original in your story but blatant disregard for all the rules of the PJOverse tends to spectacularly backfire on the ficcer.

Children of Virgin/Chaste Goddesses are by far the most abused of all the special-OC origin stories. Hera, Hestia and especially Artemis tend to end up with kids entirely too often, especially considering the fact that said goddesses have refrained from having children for literal millennia.

Titans, the very beings who despise mortals, tend to have a lot of kids running around too. Sure, I can understand a child of Prometheus, but stories about kids of Kronos are minefields just waiting to blow up in someones' face.

Children of monsters are… well, not a cliché really. If anything, it's an underused line of exploration. I recall, for instance, a fic (a Nico/OC-esque fic, even) about the daughter of a Fury. I thought it was a good concept decently written. But they're still being mentioned because they qualify and just in case someone decides to do a child of monster story (if you can get your head around the disturbing mechanics of it all).

Give reasons. I have no freaking clue what reasons they may be, but _give reasons_ for the existence of the children. Particularly for the chaste goddesses. As can be imagined 'she fell in love!' is not going to be a good reason without some _**serious**_ backup. It is _not_ going to be that simple.

Note that I am not saying that you should never, ever even think of doing them. They're concepts with plenty of potential which just need some careful handling. In addition, if you want really, _really_ badly to do an original bloodline tale, try using a mortal. And not in the Love Interest of Character sense, but in the Last Hope of the World sense. I'm pretty sure that's one avenue which has been left largely untrodden.

**f. Romantic Plot Tumor Trigger**

In which the character has to save the world (fair enough) but spends most of his/her time sorting through love isocahedrons and enough drama to turn a treatise on Roman sewers into a soap opera.

In other words, you can either have an epic romance or you can have people saving the world. It's really, really hard to do both at the same time, and I haven't seen anything which quite manages to do it properly. If your story has a plot or a theme or some sort of action-filled sequence which is the whole point of it, romance is best left understated and kept from taking over or eclipsing the main plot. On the other hand, if your primary motive is to bring two characters together, by all means, concentrate on the romance and only the romance; and keep saving-the world sequences to a minimum (which might be really, really hard given their nature- and seriously, that only serves to reinforce this bit of advice).

* * *

**An Example/Conclusion/Connection Thing**

So I said it once, and I say it again. The superficial traits and powers and in general any facts you apply to the OC is really not going to entirely make the OC a Sue. And now to follow that confusing comment up with a case study.

Let us move back to Tavi (the main character of the _Codex Alera_ series by Jim Butcher), who was mentioned previously. He's _remarkably_ intelligent, ridiculously inventive, good-looking, resourceful, a natural soldier, has a secret legacy and a backstory and was pretty much born to be special. His story is nothing but textbook clichés piled up one after another. Analytically, considering the many characteristics applicable to Sues, he is very, very thoroughly one.

Except, of course, that he really, really, _really_ does not feel like one. Let's see why.

Firstly, for all his superpowers, his intelligence and _tactics_ are what (or are one of the things that) sets him apart as an individual instead of your average hypercompetent hero. Asserting your character is not merely street/book smart but also tactically competent is risky area (I think, for example, that Annabeth really didn't shine in this potential part of her makeup- because even with her being the daughter of Athena, Percy is better able to adapt to battle situations than she seems to be. A talent for improvisation is one of Percy's reoccurring traits.), and to pull it off, you _must_ show, by actions, that they really are capable of doing what they are implied to be capable of doing. By really showing the impact Tavis' plans and tactics have on the plot as a whole, there is defying of the **Informed Ability** problem.

Secondly, the foes he faces are always, _always_ competent. As much as he grows in power, the enemies are more powerful than he is. In addition, he does not win _all_ the battles. Overpowered/overcompetent hero? Make villains who give him/her a run for their money. Make villains who aren't your typical dumb powerhouses, but smart and adaptable. This would be the **conflict**.

Thirdly, there is growth. There is **character development.** He starts off underpowered, if still intelligent, and goes through a few dozen levels of physical, mental and emotional badass before becoming His Majesty Lord Wolverine the Great. And yes, that's an official title. He qualifies himself for it, via a long, dangerous and occasionally insane path. By the end of the books, he has very much earned it.

Fourthly, Tavi is umm… how do we put this? Oh yeah, he's bloody insane. He is completely, utterly out of his mind. Sure, he seems all sane and solid and generally perfect and the rest of it, until you realize that his latest plan involves skiing ships and selling a siege wall to the ex-enemy you've just made a shaky peace treaty with. To the point where another characters' reaction to him vanishing is to ask, "Quick. What is the absolute worst place in this Valley one could go? The most insanely suicidal place to be found? The place where only a great fool would venture—and only an _insane_ fool would follow?"

(And of course, that was the right question to ask. She found him there trying to wake up a mountain.)

Being a mad genius is not a flaw, per se. But flaws are, like I mentioned, risky territory. What you really need is something that will pull your character away from the cardboard cookie cutout of perfection. And Tavi and his tendency to arrange circumstances and people in bizarre ways (often, if at all possible, without telling them why), is a deliciously quirky way of making him **unique/individually identifiable**.

Last, but definitely not the least, there is the _**narration**_**.**

The way you write a story plays a humongously, monstrously, indefinably large (I would use more superlatives, but I think that would make people inclined to skip them) part in how someone sees your story. Write a clichéd plot well (Jim Butcher _aces_ at narration, especially with clichéd plots; but I guess that's not a universal opinion), and you have a fairly good to fantastic story. Write an original plot badly, and you have something which ranges from being mediocre to being terrible.

This is a complicated section, and the best advice is probably practice, revise and practice again. But for a set of general pointers to watch out for when writing an all-OC/mostly-OC/OC-centric story, see the next chapter.

* * *

**End Notes:** Again, apologies. I really think this chapter could have been a lot better. Suggestions are welcomed.


	21. Writing an OC Fic

**Notes:** And yeah. Next chapter.

That's pretty much all I have to say, really. I suspect you should be happy about it.

* * *

**Eight Simple Rules For Writing an OC Fic**

_(or, an attempt at breaking down the heinously complicated mechanics of writing a questfic)_

* * *

**1. Negotiate the division of territory between Purple Prose and Beige Prose**

There are two extremes to narrating a story.

Purple Prose is where you expand and describe everything, never use a short word when a polysyllabic one would do, and where adjectives, metaphors and figures of speech are dragged out into the open and forced to stand together in gigantic groups. Beige Prose is the exact opposite. Sentences are short. Adjectives are rarely used. And only the smallest, meanest bits of information are given without the aid of background fluff.

Most writing styles fall into the vast territory between these two extremes, for very good reasons. While it would be hard to describe an emotional moment using beige speech, it would be immensely boring if purple prose clogged up the pace of an action sequence. There are places where one works better than other, but in every one of those places, what works best is a combination of both. Said combinations may be in various proportions, depending on the prevailing style of whoever's writing the story.

For the most part and as a general guideline, avoid straying to excess purple OR excess beige when you are writing. Roam all over the middle ground as much as you please, but stay clear of the edges.

* * *

**2. Actions Speak Louder than Narrative Words**

One of the primary rules of writing goes _show, not tell_.

This is simple enough in theory. Say, for example, you have an OC who is smart. So you don't _tell_ the reader she's smart in the narrative; you show how she's a straight-A student, and for extra emphasis you add in her analyzing a Sherlock Holmes-esque situation and coming up with deductive conclusions far beyond anyone's ability.

(The second, by the way, is a scenario I strongly suggest not pursuing, unless you're confident you can pull off an Insufferable Genius.)

However, if at any point said OC takes a walk through a monster-infested part of the woods without weapons so she can get kidnapped and later rescued by her Love Interest, you have shown beyond all doubt that she is a complete and utter idiot. No amount of good grades are going to save her from that label.

Do not _ever_ make your characters go through actions that completely and totally at odds with what you say they're like.

* * *

**3. Beware the Perils of the Infodump**

When you're writing an OC story, there's something you invariably have to end up doing.

In the beginning, your OC exists only in your head, and to make the reader connect with the OC, you need to give them a truckload of background information. Looks, fears, tragedies, backstories, anecdotes. Lots of stuff. Typically, most of the information is delivered in the first page or two, and the story proceeds like any other story the rest of the time.

This technique, where you try to tell the reader as much as you can about the character is very little time so you can actually get on with the _story_, is what is called the Infodump.

Never _ever_ do this.

First off, the infodumping crosses over into the _telling, but not showing_ territory. There's only so much you can describe a character without actions backing you up on said descriptions. This remarkably reduces the effectiveness of whatever it is you're telling the reader. Secondly, the typical response to an infodump is either shutting the brain off or skipping the paragraph. Your OC is your OC and you may already be in love with him/her, but at the moment, the majority of your readers don't really care about your OC. Which means that while they might pay attention to the odd sentence here and there describing the OC, a paragraph or two of condensed information will go in through one ear and out the other.

Your character will and is supposed to develop over the whole story, and you have at least half the story to form an impression of him/her in the readers' mind. So use plenty of actions and proofs, and take your time doing it.

* * *

**4. Consistency is Not Just for Cupcake Batter**

There's a reason most of my fics are oneshots. It's because plot-based stories have this one problem I can't ever seem to bluff my way around. They require _planning._

Ick.

However, since most OC stories tend to be three-people-go-on-a-quest stories, I was obliged to cover this. Following consultation and research, I've even managed to form some opinions. All of which pretty much boils down to this: you have to do at least some amount of pre-planning, and there is no way at all you can escape it.

In a typical straightforward action/adventure quest story (three people go to fight people and find something; ring a bell?), the narrative goes through the following stages;

**Introduction** is exactly what it sounds like. This is where you do your expositioning (but for gods' sake, keep it gradual because some of us have ADD) and introduce the problem. For example, everything in Lightning Thief from the first chapter to the point where Percy and Co. leave on the quest.

**Rising Action** is where the characters go through the events leading to solving the conflict. At the end of the rising action, while not necessary, things are _typically_ at the bleakest point for the protagonist and his/her allies. This would form the majority of the story; in LT, everything from the start of the quest to the point when the gang meet up with Ares and confront him.

**Climax** is what the all the other events lead to. In a story, it is defined as the single most crucial turning point, where the actions of the protagonist and crew solve the problem. If you've planned out an Epic battle scene, it's more likely than not going to go here. In LT, of course, this is the Percy vs. Ares battle sequence.

**Dénouement** is literally 'unknotting', and this is the part of the story where you wrap up all your loose ends and subplots. Just because the main conflict has been resolved, it doesn't mean that _everything_ is. Those would be the bits where the Masterbolt is returned, Poseidon and Percy have a talk. Sally does away with Gabe and Percy realizes Luke is the traitor.

Pacing is important here. Rising Action has to be detailed (and presumably long). Climax has to make an impression. You don't give the Climax in the second chapter of a ten-chapter story. Stuff like that. Unless you have a vague idea of what is going to happen in each of these stages, things can get knotty. Planning major plot points as you go along results in self-contradiction, where bits of hints/information you might have set up at the start become suddenly obsolete.

No, you don't have to know _this_ is how they win the fight with the Medusa when you start out, but it generally helps if you know that yes, they are going to face the Medusa.

On a related note, if you feel like being all deep and mysterious and foreshadowy, make sure that your foreshadowing is not the literary equivalent of an anvil covered with giant neon signs dropping on the readers' heads. Subtlety is not a bad thing.

* * *

**5. Rules of Canon May Be Bent, but Not Broken **

Always remember that you're playing in someone elses' sandbox.

So, you have a plot. Your OC is the prophecy child, and there's something weird going on in Olympus. Problem is, the plot requires Percy to be an antagonist of sorts. Not really much of a problem, that. This is fanfiction, after all. MorallyAmbiguous!Percy is just a few words away.

But wait, what is this? Percy spends his spare time kicking puppies and abandoning old ladies in the middle of the road? His Freudian excuse is that Paul Blofis went crazy and abused him? And hold on. Percy is eighteen? Guess the prophecy just didn't choose him. Oh and _sure_, we know the gods never raise kids, but they just had to make an exception for the adorable OC.

That blur of tears attempting to throw itself out of your penthouse balcony? Reasoning.

Writing gives you a massive, massive amount of artistic license. Entire worlds are your oysters. Fanfiction also gives you a massive amount of artistic license. But in this case, only _parts_ of the world are your accessible oysters.

Change stuff, sure. But keep other stuff same so that the stuff you changed makes sense. Percy's not the prophecy kid despite him having had his sixteeth birthday a couple of years ago? Kronos cursed him to be fifteen and something for all eternity. The rules of the world and the basic characterization of any character are only _slightly_ flexible. Over-manipulation of both of the above leads to massive structural failure.

Also, remember that stories are based on conflict. Now, unless you're writing Harry Dresden or the Winchester brothers, you don't have to make sure _everything_ goes wrong for your character, but it generally helps if they have more problems than they do solutions.

* * *

**6. Stick to the Bare Necessities**

A single, linear plotline is actually kinda boring. You want to make things interesting, you need to have several plotlines running at the same time. OC1 has a crush on OC2, OC2 has a tragic backstory that might affect the path of the quest. OC3 secretly hates OC1 and OC2 and wonders why the hell he/she is on a quest with those two, of all people. The villain knows how OC3 feels and spends quite of bit of time trying to make OC3 act on their feelings of contempt. All of this serves to enhance the cast and events as a whole, and so are generally good things.

_But_, when you give subplots, make sure they don't overshadow your main plot. If you're going on a quest to save the world, the last thing you need is an altercation with the High School Jerk Jock over the Love Interest of OC1. Unless your subplot has an impact on the story, either directly (eg: the Cheerleader OC1 has been crushing on is actually the lead Empousa) or indirectly (eg: the fight with the Jerk Jock got him/her a dislocated wrist which hasn't fully healed yet and acts up just when the dracnae is about to bite his/her head off) it has no place whatsoever in your story. Even if you have elaborate backstories detailing out everything imaginable, it should not be mentioned in the story unless it serves some purpose or another; either as a plot point, a point for character growth or heck, even as a running gag.

And please, do not ever spend a huge paragraph describing you OCs' clothes for no apparent reason whatsoever. Nobody cares.

* * *

**7. Reasoning is the Annoying Whiny Friend Always Looking Over Your Shoulder **

When people do things, they do things for a reason. This is actually pretty easy to do, because even the Dark Lord killing people because he thinks it's fun? It's a reason. Reasons are some of the most easily developed things when writing a story, because almost anything can be used as one.

It does get slightly more complicated when you add in the constraints.

Point One. When you develop a characters' personality, you also indirectly develop the kind of actions your character is permitted to do in-story. OC1 is cheerful, bubbly and would care more for her friends than anything else in the world? Put them in a position where they have to choose between the world dying and their friends dying, they are _supposed to choose the former_. OC2 is cold, distant and obsessed with duty? Put them in the same position and they would invariably choose the fate of the world over the fate of a few people. Oh sure, there can be any amount of angsting involved on both ends, but essentially the choice has already been made because the OC is who he/she _is_.

Making sudden decisions that will further the plot at the expense of doing a completely 180 on the character? Avoid. OC1 has to choose the world because without the world there won't be any story left to tell afterwards? You'd better make sure she/he is being mind-controlled or manipulated or something else. A sudden change of heart at the climactic moment is one of the most groan-worthy things you can do when writing a story.

Point Two. What motivates your characters has to be _clear_. Sure, anything can be used for a reason; but your villains' pet goldfish being brutally killed by the neighbours' cat is not an excuse for him/her to try and conquer the Universe in later life. At most, he/she has a massive dislike for cats. And yeah, if your villain is just a psychopath looking for a reason, the goldfish thing could count as an excuse, but that also means that the sight of another goldfish will not make him/her tear up and that he/she is going to be a psychopath even if the OCs go back in time and save the goldfish.

OC1 has a desperate need to prove himself. Why? Because she/he has been ignored for most of their life. OC3 has a desperate wish to blend into the background. Why? He/she has always been at the centre of the spotlight, and would like very much to smash the stupid thing with a heavy object by now. Actions, feelings and reasons can be linked together, and they tend to be somewhat more solid when they are.

This does not mean that every facet of your character has to have an action based on their backstory, by the way. Making an OC means that you have a blank palette to play with at the start, which means that a certain amount of characteristics are native to the OC simply because you said so. Problems only come in when you overuse that power.

* * *

**8. Genre Blindness is the Ineffective Way Out**

Furthering the plot of the story is important. Actually, scratch that. Furthering the plot of the story is largely the plot of a story. Events have to happen one after another to lead to the climax and whatever comes after, and to do this, you need to make sure a certain sequence of events happen in a certain way. For instance, if the Huntsman had killed Snow-White right when the queen asked him to, there wouldn't have been much of a story. He had to let her go, and she had to meet the dwarfs.

This is where you run into a problem, and fairy tales are just perfect tools for illustrating this particular problem because they are guilty of the crime in _so_ many ways.

Noticeably, most of the conflicts would have been avoided if either the heroes or the villains just used their common senses. The wicked queen could have killed Snow White herself instead of delegating the task to someone who might be susceptible to wide-eyed frightened innocence. After receiving ample proof that yes, the queen was trying to kill her, the last thing Snow White should have done was accepting gifts from old ladies who just happened to be wandering the middle of the woods- this bit is even worse in the original, where the queen almost-killed her, using the same methodology but different goods, _thrice_. But it happens because otherwise we wouldn't have the Prince coming in on the white horse or the queen meeting her bloody end.

This phenomenon, where the characters are unable to see through plots a kindergartner could unravel, or liable to take paths of logic which make sense only to the nearest drunkard on hallucinogens; is called Genre Blindness. In the post fairytale world, Genre Blindness is looked upon with much disdain.

Making your characters smart, capable and above all inclined to act sensibly in situations is far from a bad thing. Writing a story where the dim heroine defeats the dimmer villain is easy. Writing a story where the resourceful heroine outmaneuvers the calculating villain is harder, but a lot more satisfying in the long run. In a fandom as prone to attracting OC stories as the PJO fandom, it helps if your story has that little extra something.

So seriously. If your characters (protagonists or antagonists) are about to do something, try asking yourself if you would do that in their situation. Furthering the plot is not a good excuse for making people act like utter idiots.

* * *

**End Notes:** So, there are plenty of things to cover, but since I gave up on the notions of an ordered guide a while ago, I'm stuck on what to cover next. let me know if there's anything you'd like to see in particular. Everything should be dealt with eventually, of course, but this way you might get to see what you want before you get grey hairs.


End file.
